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• Chinook
  Chinook

  noun

  a member of a formerly numerous North American Indian people originally inhabiting the northern shore of the mouth of the Columbia River and the adjacent territory.
• chinook
  chinook

  noun

  a warm dry southwesterly wind blowing down the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains

Chinook

American  

[shi-nook, -nook, chi-] / ʃɪˈnʊk, -ˈnuk, tʃɪ- /

noun

• Chinooks,
  plural
• Chinook
  plural

1. a member of a formerly numerous North American Indian people originally inhabiting the northern shore of the mouth of the Columbia River and the adjacent territory.

2. either of the two languages of the Chinook Indians.

3. (lowercase) a warm, dry wind that blows at intervals down the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains.

4. (lowercase) chinook salmon.

5. a U.S. Army cargo helicopter in service since 1962 and capable of ferrying 12 tons of supplies and troops.

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Chinook ¹ British  

/ -ˈnʊk, tʃɪˈnuːk /

noun

1. a Native American people of the Pacific coast near the Columbia River

2. the language of this people, probably forming a separate branch of the Penutian phylum

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chinook ² British  

/ -ˈnʊk, tʃɪˈnuːk /

noun

1. Also called: snow eater.  a warm dry southwesterly wind blowing down the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains

2. Also called: wet chinook.  a warm moist wind blowing onto the Washington and Oregon coasts from the sea

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chinook Scientific  

/ shĭ-nk′,chĭ- /

1. A moist, warm wind blowing from the sea in coastal regions of the Pacific Northwest.

2. A warm, dry wind descending from the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, causing a rapid rise in temperature. These winds often melt snow quite rapidly, at times at a rate of up to a foot per hour.

3. See also foehn

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• Chinook
  plural
• Chinooks
  plural

Etymology

Origin of chinook

C19: from Salish c`inuk

Explanation

A chinook is a very big fish, a type of salmon that's found in the Pacific Ocean. Chinooks are also known as "king salmon." In addition to the giant salmon that's commonly fished from Alaska to California, the word chinook is also used for a particular type of wind. This meteorological chinook is a warm, dry wind that blows down from a mountain range during the end of the winter season. Both types of chinook are named for the Chinook people, a Pacific Northwest indigenous group.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Chinook chinook Chinooks

They have been counting heavily on aerial assistance to bring the situation under control, with two water-bombing aircraft from Sweden and two Dutch military Chinook helicopters backing up two Belgian helicopters on site.

From Barron's ● Aug. 17, 2026

A Chinook helicopter carrying 25 passengers and four crew crashed in the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland on 2 June 1994, killing all of those on board.

From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026

When Chinook salmon swim upstream from the ocean to spawn in rivers and creeks, they need cold water for their eggs to survive.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 21, 2026

CH-47 Chinook, Moroccan and U.S. drones, a U.S. logistics support vessel, a Moroccan Navy frigate, and Moroccan mountaineers and divers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 3, 2026

I wanted so badly to describe the prairie smell to him, the sweet promise of spring after a Chinook, the warm, edgy rub of sage, the rib-eye steak smell of my fields.

From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson

Biologists expect that with the dams now removed and the Klamath flowing freely, all types of native fish will benefit, including fall-run and spring-run chinook as well as coho salmon, steelhead trout and Pacific lampreys.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2024

California declared the Klamath population of spring-run chinook threatened in 2022.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2024

The state’s plan cautions, however, that spring-run chinook may not repopulate their historical habitats on their own because those areas lie more than 100 miles upriver from waters where they survive.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2024

Most years, fishing crews fan out in boats along the California coast to catch fall-run chinook, the most numerous variety.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2024

He and Harry Secor had worked together to stalk the giant chinook salmon of the Dungeness River.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown

A subsequent review by Lord Philip set out "numerous concerns" raised by those who worked on the Chinooks.

From BBC ● May 25, 2025

For example, the maps highlight a hotspot for Chinooks gathering in the Bering Sea.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 16, 2024

Wayne Coulson, chief executive of Coulson Aviation, said the Chinooks are the industry’s most powerful CH-47 firefighting helicopters.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2023

Chinooks were the aircraft used to evacuate U.S. embassy personnel from Sudan in April.

From Washington Times ● May 11, 2023

Here the boar makes no pretence of being the incarnation of a god, but is a mere boar sans phrase, like the creative coyote of the Papogas and Chinooks, or the musk-rat of the Tacullies.

From Myth, Ritual and Religion — Volume 1 by Andrew Lang

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