Algonquian
Americannoun
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a family of languages spoken now or formerly by North American Indians in an area extending from Labrador westward to the Rocky Mountains, west-southwestward through Michigan and Illinois, and southwestward along the Atlantic coast to Cape Hatteras, including especially Arapaho, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Cree, Fox, Massachusett, Mi'kmaq, Ojibwe, and Powhatan.
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a member of an Algonquian-speaking tribe.
adjective
noun
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a family of North American Indian languages whose speakers ranged over an area stretching from the Atlantic between Newfoundland and Delaware to the Rocky Mountains, including Micmac, Mahican, Ojibwa, Fox, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, and Shawnee. Some linguists relate it to Muskogean in a Macro-Algonquian phylum
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a member of any of the North American Indian peoples that speak one of these languages
adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of Algonquian
An Americanism dating back to 1885–90; Algonqui(n) + -an
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:
In fact, Moodus is short for “Machimoodus” or “Mackimoodus,” which means “place of bad noises” in the Algonquian dialects once spoken in the area.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 7, 2024
Among the Powhatan-speaking Algonquian tribes of Virginia, the trees are opomens.
From Salon ● Dec. 18, 2023
Its name is thought to come from Algonquian tribes in North America, with June being the month when strawberries begin to ripen for picking.
From BBC ● Jun. 4, 2023
The Blackfeet so venerated beavers’ water-creating abilities that they forbade killing them, and some Algonquian tribes consider the Great Beaver responsible for molding the Connecticut River Valley.
From Scientific American ● Dec. 1, 2022
He speaks to them in Algonquian as best he can.
From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone
Morton declared that the local Algonquians had much to offer to the English and could show the colonists how to make a profit from the land.
From BusinessWeek ● Nov. 23, 2011
Came to Canada, 1618, and the same year sent to the Algonquians of Allumette Island, on the Ottawa, to learn their language.
From The Makers of Canada: Index and Dictionary of Canadian History by Various
Index: Ch Accompanies Champlain to Quebec, 41; joins Algonquians to learn their language, 63; interpreter of Algonquian language, 144; sides with the Kirkes, 194; subsequent career, 203.
From The Makers of Canada: Index and Dictionary of Canadian History by Various
Work among the Algonquians began that year; and among the Hurons in 1626.
From The Makers of Canada: Index and Dictionary of Canadian History by Various
These clans, called by the Algonquians ‘totems,’ all bore the names of certain animals, with which the Indians held themselves to be mythologically connected—the bear, wolf, deer, porcupine, snake, hawk, large tortoise and small tortoise.
From The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations by Nuttall, Zelia
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
