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Geology. a Paleozoic landmass, the erosion of which provided the sediments to form the rocks of the .
a region in the E United States, in the area of the S , usually including NE Alabama, NW Georgia, NW South Carolina, E Tennessee, W Virginia, E Kentucky, West Virginia, and SW Pennsylvania.
Contemporary Examples

The Taliban has deep roots in this south-central Pashtun province, often described as “Afghanistan’s Appalachia” by the Americans.
Afghan Women’s Uncertain Future Ann Marlowe December 2, 2010

President Lyndon Johnson had just taken a tour of communities in Appalachia without electricity, running water, or sewage systems.
The U.S. Is Losing a Generation to Poverty Monica Potts September 17, 2014

Vast pockets of both continued to exist well after that—in Appalachia and the inner cities, for example—and some exist still.
Ebola and America’s Childish Narcissism Michael Tomasky October 17, 2014

The coal industry is blowing the tops off mountains in Appalachia.
Mark Ruffalo on the Gulf Gas-Well Blowout and Why We Need to Kick Fossil Fuels to the Curb Mark Ruffalo July 28, 2013

He saw a similarly large collapse in Appalachia, home to large numbers of lower-income whites.
What Links the Neo-Confederate Virginia Flaggers, Barack Obama & Race Jamelle Bouie August 7, 2013

Historical Examples

And then he’d show Rusche some of the high spots of the low-number levels of Appalachia.
Second Sight Basil Eugene Wells

The Ordovician sea stretched from Appalachia across the Mississippi valley.
The Elements of Geology William Harmon Norton

The first problem of Appalachia to-day is the very same problem as that of western Pennsylvania in 1784.
Our Southern Highlanders Horace Kephart

So in Appalachia, one steps shortly from the railway into the primitive.
Our Southern Highlanders Horace Kephart

“The motives of two centuries ago” are the motives of present-day Appalachia.
Our Southern Highlanders Horace Kephart

noun
a highland region of the eastern US, containing the Appalachian Mountains, extending from Pennsylvania to Alabama

“cultural and geographical region of inland Eastern U.S.,” 1880s, from the Appalachian Mountains, which are its core. Earlier Appalachia was proposed as a better name for “United States of America” by Washington Irving in 1839 (though he preferred Alleghenia) and this may have been the coinage of the word.

It is a thousand pities that the puny witticisms of a few professional objectors should have the power to prevent, even for a year, the adoption of a name for our country. At present we have, clearly, none. There should be no hesitation about “Appalachia.” In the first place, it is distinctive. “America” is not, and can never be made so. We may legislate as much as we please, and assume for our country whatever name we think right — but to use it will be no name, to any purpose for which a name is needed, unless we can take it away from the regions which employ it at present. South America is “America,” and will insist upon remaining so. [Edgar Allan Poe, 1846]

Appalachia [(ap-uh-lay-chuh, ap-uh-lach-uh)]

A mountainous region in the eastern United States, running from northern Alabama to Pennsylvania, and including parts of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, and all of West Virginia.

Note: A major coal-mining center and one of the most impoverished regions of the country.