British Columbia

province of SW Canada, on the Pacific: 357,073 sq mi (924,815 sq km); cap. Victoria: abbrev. BC or B.C.

Origin of British Columbia

after the Columbia River

Link/Cite

Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"British Columbia." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 22 June 2018. <http://www.yourdictionary.com/british-columbia>.

APA Style

British Columbia. (n.d.). Retrieved June 22nd, 2018, from http://www.yourdictionary.com/british-columbia

British Columbia

Abbr. BC

A province of western Canada bordering on the Pacific Ocean. The Hudson's Bay Company established a British colony at Vancouver Island in 1849, and a separate colony, called British Columbia, was formed on the mainland in 1858, the year of the Fraser River gold rush. The two colonies merged in 1866 and were admitted as a single province in 1871. Victoria is the capital and Vancouver the largest city.x

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.