Cherokee

American  

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

noun

• Cherokees,
  plural
• Cherokee
  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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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• Cherokee
  plural
• Cherokees
  plural

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Cherokee Cherokees

Bare rode Rebel across property still full of arrowheads left behind by Cherokee and Shawnee tribes, hundreds of acres of Huddleston family farmland that started with a single purchase in 1848.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026

While most Native Americans could explain where the ginger gene might have come from, there was one exception - a Cherokee girl called Lakia - whose family knew of no European ancestry.

From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2026

The continued ramp-up of the all-new Jeep Cherokee and the all-new Dodge Charger also helped.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026

According to Rebecca Nagle, a citizen of Cherokee Nation, a writer and journalist, and the host of the new podcast First America, the Founding Fathers initially faced an identity crisis.

From Slate ● Jul. 3, 2026

Maybe they got some Cherokee in them too.

From "Like Vanessa" by Tami Charles

While Stellantis used six cameras for the jury-rigged Grand Cherokees, the vehicles available for purchase in 2028 will sport 10 cameras and five radars, giving Wayve’s AI more data to rely on.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026

Earlier this year, a team of engineers flew to Detroit on a secret mission to make Jeep Grand Cherokees drive themselves.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026

Mattel should have considered traditional pucker toe moccasins, instead of black shoes, and included symbols on the basket that Cherokees use to tell a story, she said.

From Washington Times ● Dec. 4, 2023

About a quarter of the 16,000 Cherokees who walked what became known as the Trail of Tears died on their way to Oklahoma.

From New York Times ● Apr. 4, 2023

Within a short time, the Cherokees achieved almost 100 percent literacy in the syllabary, bought a printing press, had Sequoyah’s signs cast as type, and began printing books and newspapers.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond