Chautauqua
noun
Lake, a lake in SW New York. 18 miles (29 km) long.
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Chautauqua
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chautauqua
chautauquanoun(in the US, formerly) a summer school or educational meeting held in the summer
Chautauqua
American
[shuh-taw-kwuh, chuh-]
/ ʃəˈtɔ kwə, tʃə- /
noun
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Lake, a lake in SW New York. 18 miles (29 km) long.
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a village on this lake: summer educational center.
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an annual educational meeting, originating in this village in 1874, providing public lectures, concerts, and dramatic performances during the summer months, usually in an outdoor setting.
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(usually lowercase) any similar assembly, especially one of a number meeting in a circuit of communities.
adjective
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of or relating to a system of education flourishing in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, originating at Lake Chautauqua, New York.
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(usually lowercase) pertaining to a chautauqua.
a chautauqua program.
chautauqua
British
/ ʃəˈtɔːkwə /
noun
Etymology
Origin of chautauqua
C19: named after Chautauqua, a lake in New York near which such a school was first held
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
For live music or comedy, venues like the Art-Deco-style Boulder Theater and Chautauqua Auditorium, a wooden building built in 1898, offer entertainment with the bonus of interesting architecture.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 27, 2026
Any trip should involve a hike in Chautauqua Park, or a long, meandering bike ride along the Boulder Creek Path.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 27, 2026
The lead story in the first edition, according to the newspaper’s website, was about $1 million being spent to pave a stretch of modern-day Chautauqua Boulevard and to plant trees near Santa Monica Canyon.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 11, 2025
We’d evacuated a few years ago, so they knew that once there’s an evacuation order, Chautauqua and Temescal would be backed up.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 4, 2025
There were numerous routes through Allegany, Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties, along which the negroes were helped; all converging at Buffalo or on the Niagara.
From Old Trails on the Niagara Frontier by Frank H. Severance
Eventually, the word chautauqua became a generic term to describe a range of educational events in rural areas.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 13, 2022
According to some historians, the movement peaked around 1915, when 12,000 communities had hosted a chautauqua.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 13, 2022
Culver soon zestfully launched a chautauqua, wound up with a military academy.
From Time Magazine Archive
Joni's arrival turns the camp town meeting into a sing-along chautauqua.
From Time Magazine Archive
But this Chicago preacher went from one chautauqua town to another, and took his vacation going up and down the streets.
From The University of Hard Knocks by Ralph Parlette
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