It is, in fact, America’s most populous state. But not the largest. Not by a longshot.
That is all.
Thanks for clearing that up?
I just get pissed off by “journalists” for alledgedly reputable news sources not understanding the difference between “large” and “populous.”
From CNN:
From The New York Times:
And so on.
It really pisses me off.
Think maybe they are referring to electoral votes?
Dreams of 2004 dance in their heads…Bushies have locked Florida, Texas and now…California. Hoorah, applause, vomit 
Yeah, it pisses me off too, everyone knows that Texas is the BIGGEST 
pssst, t-keela. Tejas ain’t the largest state no more. We added another one up north a while back that’s bigger.
I believe it’s called “Canada”.
Bullshit, Canada is a territory of the United States… they can’t vote can they?
Shit…I guess Bob Barker will be running for something next.
BTW I was lost in this other thread
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=216081&goto=newpost
HELP
I thought the biggest state in the U.S. was George Bush’s Ego.
Either that or his stupidity, can’t tell which is bigger
Alaska’s got 'em both whupped badly.
Alaska: 571, 951 sq. mi.
Texas: 261,797 sq. mi.
California: 155,959 sq. mi.
Not if it melted.
Only 5% of its land mass (~28,500 sq miles) is covered by glaciers. Therefore, even if it melted, it would still be more than twice the size of Texas.
If controlling a Governorship were the same as controlling the state’s electoral votes, the Reps should have carried New York, Pennsylvania, and Michigan in 2000.
Yeah… to steal the premise of a BBC article I just read, Arnold is pro-choice, he’s NOT particularly anti-gay, and he’s married to a freaking KENNEDY. His election does not mean that California has turned into a bunch of right-wing reactionaries, and he does not by any means guarantee that California will go to the Bushies.
The OP assumes that the word “state” refers only to the ground on which the state is built. A case could be made that the population is the state.
A state is truly measured by its coastline.
No, a state is measured by its abundance of corn.
Who measures these things? (cite?)
656,425 square miles for Alaska here - that’s damn near 85000 sq. miles that has ‘all melted away’ in your cite. 
The biggest state in the country is the state of denial. It seems everyone lives there.
I have no idea what I was watching but I recently saw something on TV that was evidently filmed at the University of Texas. The hostess was asking college students some trivia questions, including, “What’s the largest state?” They had one person say “Alaska.” Everyone else said “California” or “Texas”; one even said “Hawaii” until he switched to “Texas.”
Unless the context is specifically physical geography, then I always assume that “largest” means “most populous”, or “having the largest economy”. By that yardstick California wins.
Looks like CNN replaced “largest” with “most populous” in their article.