{"id":11911,"date":"2023-12-09T21:25:08","date_gmt":"2023-12-09T20:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aboutriver.com\/?p=11911"},"modified":"2023-12-09T21:25:08","modified_gmt":"2023-12-09T20:25:08","slug":"is-mississippi-river-capitalised","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aboutriver.com\/is-mississippi-river-capitalised\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Mississippi River Capitalised"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Mississippi River is a major United States river that flows southwards for more than 2,300 miles. It’s broadly recognized as the largest river system in North America and at its most downstream point, it flows into the Gulf of Mexico. Since centuries ago, the Mississippi River has been a major component of the United States’ cultural and economic landscape, as it primarily served as a transportation corridor for people and goods. So, it’s obvious why many people have wondered if this important river should be capitalized or not.<\/p>\n

One of the arguments in favour of capitalizing Mississippi River is because of its importance to the nation. Being a major component to the country’s economy, culture, and even its birthplace of history, capitalizing the Mississippi to give credit to its significance is a reasonable argument. Additionally, other major rivers in the United States are capitalized, such as the Columbia River and the Colorado River, so this could also be reason to capitalize the Mississippi.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, others argue that Mississippi River should not be capitalized. Most commonly this is disputed because it’s not directly regarded as a proper noun or geographic feature, like a state or country. Furthermore, critics of capitalizing the river argue that it’s also considered to be a part of “nature,” and it wouldn’t be suitable to capitalize something that purely exists as a part of nature.<\/p>\n

As well, another argument is that although the rivers in the United States are capitalized, this is mainly because the names of rivers come from proper nouns, not just the rivers themselves. For example, the Columbia River is a combination of the words “Columbia” (a proper noun) and “river” (which is not a proper noun), so capitalizing “Columbia” is perfectly acceptable. The same can be said for the Colorado River, which uses “Colorado” (a proper noun). This is where the argument for not capitalizing the Mississippi River comes in, as there is no proper noun associated with it.<\/p>\n