Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • A city of southeast Arizona south-southeast of Phoenix. A Spanish mission was founded nearby in 1700, and the present city was first settled in 1776 as a walled presidio. It became part of the United States after the Gadsden Purchase (1853) and served as territorial capital from 1867 until 1877.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun A city located in the state of Arizona in the southwestern United States.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a city in southeastern Arizona ringed by mountain ranges; long known as a winter and health resort but the population shift from industrial states to the Sunbelt resulted in rapid growth late in the 20th century

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

The name Tucson comes from the O'odham name for the city, Chuk Shon, meaning "Spring at the base of the black mountain". The "black mountain" refers to the summit now known as Sentinel Peak, or "A Mountain", just to the west of Tucson's downtown area.

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