Cayuga
Americannoun
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a member of a tribe of North American Indians, the smallest tribe of the Iroquois Confederacy.
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the dialect of the Seneca language spoken by the Cayuga.
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Also called Cayuga duck. one of an American breed of domestic ducks having black plumage.
noun
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a member of a Native American people (one of the Iroquois peoples) formerly living around Cayuga Lake
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the language of this people, belonging to the Iroquoian family
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of Cayuga
1735–45, < Cayuga *kayo·kwę, name of a 17th-century village; compare Cayuga kayokwęhó˙nǫʔ Cayuga (people) (or < a related form in another N Iroquoian language)
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.
In 2023, the former Cedar View Golf course, on the eastern shore of Cayuga Lake in upstate New York, was bought by the Finger Lakes Land Trust.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 18, 2024
I’ve been learning my Indigenous language, Cayuga, for five years.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 3, 2023
Bulldozing and claims of kidnapping: The Cayuga Nation, a tribe in upstate New York, is at war with itself.
From New York Times • Mar. 14, 2023
Another was brought by Seneca Lake Guardian, an environmental group, against the state for approving a waste transfer station that could leak toxic chemicals into Cayuga Lake, a source of drinking water.
From Salon • Feb. 21, 2023
It was made up of the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk Nations and was later joined by the Tuscaroras.
From "An Indigenous People’s History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
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.
