Cherokee

American  

[cher-uh-kee, cher-uh-kee] / ˈtʃɛr əˌki, ˌtʃɛr əˈki /

noun

Cherokees plural

1. a member of an important tribe of North American Indians whose first known center was in the southern Alleghenies and who presently live in North Carolina and Oklahoma.

2. the Iroquoian language of the Cherokee, written since 1822 in a syllabic script invented for the language by Sequoya.

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Cherokee British  

/ ˌtʃɛrəˈkiː, ˈtʃɛrəˌkiː /

noun

1. a member of a Native American people formerly living in and around the Appalachian Mountains, now chiefly in Oklahoma; one of the Iroquois peoples

2. the language of this people, belonging to the Iroquoian family

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Example Sentences

“The driver of the white Jeep Cherokee abandoned the vehicle at the scene and fled the location on foot without stopping to identify themselves or render aid as required by law,” the police statement read.

From Los Angeles Times • May 6, 2026

Cross over from Cherokee County, North Carolina, to Monroe County, Tennessee, and the typical rate jumps more than 50%, despite the two counties having roughly the same predicted damages from natural disasters.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 29, 2026

A member of the Cherokee Nation, the 48-year-old Republican senator from the central state of Oklahoma is currently the only Native American serving in the US Senate.

From Barron's • Mar. 5, 2026

A member of the Cherokee Nation, he’s rich, having taken over, expanded, and then sold what was originally his father’s plumbing business.

From Slate • Mar. 5, 2026

The people of these “mound builder” civilizations dispersed before the European invasion, but we know their descendants today as the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee Creek, and Natchez Nations of the Southeast.

From "An Indigenous People’s History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz