Proper noun

Singular Las Vegas

Plural -

Las Vegas

1. A desert city in Nevada, USA, known for its large hotels, extravagant entertainment and dining, and gambling.

Synonyms

• Vegas
• Sin City
• The Strip

Las Vegas (pronounced /lɑːs ˈveɪɡəs/); is the most populous city in Nevada, the seat of Clark County, and an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping and fine dining. Las Vegas, which bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, is famous for the number of casino resorts and associated entertainment. A growing retirement and family city, it is the 28th most populous city in the United States with an estimated population by the U.S. Census Bureau of 558,383 as of 2008. The estimated population of the Las Vegas metropolitan area as of 2008, was 1,865,746.

Established in 1905, Las Vegas officially became a city in 1911. With the growth that followed, at the close of the century Las Vegas was the most populous American city founded in the 20th century (a distinction held by Chicago in the 19th century). The city's tolerance for various forms of adult entertainment earned it the title of Sin City, and this image has made Las Vegas a popular setting for films and television programs. On the other hand, Las Vegas also has the highest number of churches per capita of any major U.S. city. There are numerous outdoor lighting displays on Fremont Street, as well as elsewhere in the city.

The name Las Vegas is often applied to unincorporated areas that surround the city, especially the resort areas on and near the Las Vegas Strip. The 4 mi (6.4 km) stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard known as the Strip is mainly in the unincorporated communities of Paradise and Winchester, while a small portion overlaps into Las Vegas and the unincorporated community of Enterprise.

Las Vegas (Spanish for The Meadows) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada, the seat of Clark County, and an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and entertainment. Las Vegas, billed as The Entertainment Capital of the World, is famous for the number of casino resorts and associated entertainment.

Sourced

• Shoot, a fellow could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff.
  • Major T.J. “King” Kong (Slim Pickens), Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, discussing the contents of the survival kit issued to GIs (1964). Written by Stanley Kubrick.

• Las Vegas has become, just as Bugsy Siegel dreamed, the American Monte Carlo—without any of the inevitable upper-class baggage of the Riviera casinos. At Monte Carlo there is still the plush mustiness of the nineteenth century noble lions.... There are still Wrong Forks, Deficient Accents, Poor Tailoring, Gauche Displays, Nouveau Richness, Cultural Aridity—concepts unknown in Las Vegas. For the grand debut of Monte Carlo as a resort in 1879 the architect Charles Garnier designed an opera house for the Place du Casino; and Sarah Bernhardt read a symbolic poem. For the debut of Las Vegas as a resort in 1946 Bugsy Siegel hired Abbot and Costello, and there, in a way, you have it all.
  • Tom Wolfe, Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby, "Farrar" (1965)

From Wikiquote under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Thu Sep 2 20:51:19 2010