Word.ws English Dictionary

McKinley

/məˈkɪn.li/

McKinley proper noun: a surname from Scottish Gaelic.

mckinley: a surname from Scottish Gaelic
Image: National Museum of American History, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Proper noun (1)

McKinley (plural McKinleys)

  1. A surname from Scottish Gaelic.
    • The ceremony was performed at the commodious old Saxton homestead, formerly the home of the McKinleys, now occupied by the Barbers, and was witnessed by Mrs. McKinley.1902 December 31, “McKinley Relative Married. Miss Mary Barber, Niece of the President’s Widow, a Bride at Canton, Ohio.”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN...
  2. A male given name transferred from the surname, briefly popular in the US when William McKinley was President (1897-1901).
  3. A female given name transferred from the surname, of modern usage.
  4. An unincorporated community in Marengo County, Alabama, United States.
  5. An unincorporated community in Jefferson Township, Washington County, Indiana, United States.
  6. A tiny city in St. Louis County, Minnesota, United States.
  7. An unorganized territory in Kittson County, Minnesota, United States.
  8. A neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States.
  9. An unincorporated community in Elk County, Pennsylvania, United States.
  10. An unincorporated community in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States.
  11. A former unincorporated community in Wood County, West Virginia, United States.
  12. A town and unincorporated community in Polk County, Wisconsin, United States.
  13. A town in Taylor County, Wisconsin, United States.

Noun

McKinley (plural McKinleys)

  1. (US, rare, slang) A United States five-hundred-dollar bill.
    • Presidents: Cash money, folding bills, the green stuff, cabbage, lettuce, bucks, dough, i.e., Washingtons ($1), Jeffersons ($2), Lincolns ($5), Jacksons ($20), Grants ($50), McKinleys ($500), Clevelands ($1,000), Madisons ($5,000), and Wilsons ($100,000).1990, Stewart Wolpin, The Rules of Neighborhood Poker According to Hoyle®, New York, N.Y.: New Chapter Press, →ISBN, page 339
    • Write an equation for each relevant clue. Solve by substitution. […] h. 10 Grants make a McKinley (M_c).1996, Alice Kaseberg, Introductory Algebra: A Just-in-Time Approach, Pacific Grove, Calif.: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 237
  2. (historical, informal) A processor of Intel’s first Itanium 2 brand, code-named McKinley.
    • This may or may not be true, but the masses are going to believe it and buy Merceds ( or hold off buying anything ) on the promise that in a year or two they'll be able to upgrade to McKinleys that will blow away anything the competition has.2001 June 28, Malcolm Dunnett, “Full port of VMS to Itanium.”, in comp.os.vms (Usenet), archived from the original on 22 Jun 2025
    • The cost of the Alpha processors in a current mid-range or better AlphaServer is a *small* percentage of the whole. Replace them with 'McKinleys and the box price won't change significantly (unless you try to recoup the cost of developing the McKinley version, in which case the price will go *up*)...2001 November 7, Bill Todd, “Compaq: VMS is alive and kicking”, in comp.os.vms (Usenet), archived from the original on 22 Jun 2025

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Mckinley

Mckinley

  1. A female given name transferred from the surname.

Examples of McKinley in a sentence

  • What we really need are McKinleys and Clevelands - $500 and $1,000 bills.1999 December 12, Tony Oresteen, “Gold Doller^([sic]) coin coming March 1, 2000”, in rec.gambling.poker (Usenet), archived from the...
  • The girls love them. (They love Lincolns, Hamiltons, Jacksons, Grants, Franklins, McKinleys, Clevelands, Madisons, and Chases, too.2007 November 16, Jerry Dennis, “Dollar Bill Production Halted”, in rec.collecting.coins (Usenet), archived from the original on 22 Jun...
  • "jus' keepin' the blues alive"......!!!! myself?...I'd just as soon have a coupla "McKinleys" in my wallet at this time..... anybody else? thanx you very much.......2008 May 14, St John, “the name "McKinley"”, in bit.listserv.blues-l (Usenet), archived from the original on 22 Jun 2025:
  • We'll see, INTEL are playing their cards very close to their chest, but $1500 'low-end' McKinleys don't sounds like they are going to compete in any meaningful way with the P4 line to me.2002 July 17, Rupert Pigott, “McKinley Cometh...”, in comp.arch (Usenet), archived from the original on 22 Jun 2025:

Synonyms of McKinley

Forms of McKinley

Proper noun
pluralMcKinleys
alternative formMcKinlay
Noun
pluralMcKinleys

Origin of McKinley

Anglicized from Scottish Gaelic Mac Fhionnlaoich, "son of Fionnlaoch (=Fair Warrior)". The dollar-bill sense is from the portrait of William McKinley featured on it.

Rare spelling variant of McKinley.

Words formed from McKinley

Phrases with McKinley

Words that rhyme with McKinley

Questions about McKinley

What does McKinley mean?
McKinley means a surname from Scottish Gaelic.
How do you use McKinley in a sentence?
What we really need are McKinleys and Clevelands - $500 and $1,000 bills.
What part of speech is McKinley?
McKinley can be a proper noun or a noun.
How do you pronounce McKinley?
McKinley is pronounced /məˈkɪn.li/.

Words near McKinley in the dictionary

  1. McKillops
  2. McKim
  3. McKims
  4. McKinlay
  5. McKinlays
  6. McKinley
  7. McKinley County
  8. McKinleyism
  9. McKinleys
  10. McKinleyville
  11. McKinnell

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: McKinley (page history and authors); Mckinley (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “McKinley.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mckinley. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.