50-state car
n.— «Many of the cars that are produced today are called 50-state cars: they don’t have an EPA version and a California version. In other words, the vehicle meets the strictest standard that’s out there, whether it’s EPA for a certain pollutant, or California for a certain pollutant, and then they sell the same vehicles in all 50 states.» —“Obama’s action gives clean car backers a boost” by Stephanie Hemphill Minnesota Public Radio Jan 26, 2009. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
After our conversation about towns with extremely short names, many listeners wrote to tell us about Why, Arizona. Others pointed out that there are towns called Ely in Iowa, Minnesota, and Nevada. Other super-short appellations include Rye, New...
When she was a child, Chris from Santa Rosa, California, misunderstood the definition of the word vehicle—with amusing results. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Wearing a Train, at That Age?” We often talk on the...