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

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Cherokee Cherokees

The ceremony was held at the Oklahoma home of Steinem’s friend Wilma Mankiller, former head of the Cherokee Nation.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 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

After recording drums at Cherokee Studios, the band relocated to Harddrive Analog & Digital Recording in North Hollywood to make the bulk of “Bleed American.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 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

All told, more than a thousand Cherokee homes were laid waste during that winter and some fifty thousand bushels of corn and other provisions either burned or looted.

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

While now eschewing the imperial strife of European colonists, the Five Nations waged their own “mourning wars” against the Catawbas and Cherokees of the south.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026

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

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

Another $5 million will go into a tribal endowment to help pay for Cherokees to go to college and grad school to become therapists and medical professionals needed to staff the facilities.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 13, 2023

Many Cherokees gradually began to use this written form of their language.

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

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