Delaware

American  

[del-uh-wair] / ˈdɛl əˌwɛər /

noun

Delawares, plural Delaware plural

1. Baron. De La Warr, 12th Baron.

2. a state in the eastern United States, on the Atlantic coast. 2,057 square miles (5,330 square kilometers). Dover. DE (for use with zip code), Del.

3. a city in central Ohio.

4. a river flowing south from southeastern New York, along the boundary between Pennsylvania and New Jersey, into the Delaware Bay. 296 miles (475 kilometers) long.

5. a member of a grouping of North American Indian peoples, comprising the Munsee, Unami, and Unalachtigo, formerly occupying the drainage basin of the Delaware River, the lower Hudson River valley, and the intervening area.

6. the Eastern Algonquian language of any of the Delaware peoples.

7. Horticulture.

   1. a red vinifera grape grown for table use that yields a white wine.

   2. the vine bearing this fruit.

---

Delaware ¹ British  

/ ˈdɛləˌwɛə /

noun

1. a member of a North American Indian people formerly living near the Delaware River

2. the language of this people, belonging to the Algonquian family

---

Delaware ² British  

/ ˈdɛləˌwɛə /

noun

1. an American variety of grape that has sweet light red fruit

---

Delaware ³ British  

/ ˈdɛləˌwɛə /

noun

1. Abbreviation: Del..   DE.  a state of the northeastern US, on the Delmarva Peninsula: mostly flat and low-lying, with hills in the extreme north and cypress swamps in the extreme south. Capital: Dover. Pop: 817 491 (2003 est). Area: 5004 sq km (1932 sq miles)

2. a river in the northeastern US, rising in the Catskill Mountains and flowing south into Delaware Bay , an inlet of the Atlantic. Length 660 km (410 miles)

---

Delaware Cultural  

1. State in the eastern United States bordered by Pennsylvania to the north, Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and Maryland to the west and south. Its capital is Dover, and its largest city is Wilmington.

---

Discover More

One of the thirteen colonies.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• Delaware
  plural
• Delawares
  plural

Etymology

Origin of Delaware

First recorded in 1720–30 in reference to the American Indian peoples

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Delaware Delawares

It was but a week after its appearance that Washington and his men crossed the icy Delaware River by night and surprised Hessian mercenaries in Trenton, N.J.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026

We believe findings here are likely to hold in other places similarly dependent on agriculture, as farmers from Wisconsin to Delaware speak up about their reliance on immigrant labor.

From Salon ● Jun. 28, 2026

That rate is higher than every state other than Delaware.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 2026

During his questioning, Joe Biden, then a young senator from Delaware, applauded Nixon’s choice: “If he picks a conservative, I want him to pick a straight one and a bright one.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026

In that same year, 1820, the year of the Missouri Compromise, Thomas Garrett and his wife, Sarah, both Quakers, moved from Darby, Pennsylvania, to Wilmington, Delaware.

From "Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad" by Ann Petry

But leaders of the Shawnee Tribe and the Eastern Shawnees, both now based in Oklahoma, like the Delawares, said they hadn’t had any discussions about it.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 11, 2024

The framers from the big states, like Virginia’s James Madison, fought the idea furiously, but in the end, the Vermonts and Delawares had their way.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 18, 2020

The French, aided by the Potawotomis, Ottawas, Shawnees, and Delawares, ambushed the fifteen hundred British soldiers and Virginia militia who marched to the fort.

From Textbooks ● Dec. 30, 2014

Imagine carving out of an expanse as large as 1.5 Delawares — a mound as tall, from base to peak, as Mount McKinley in Alaska, the tallest mountain in North America at 20,237 feet.

From New York Times ● Dec. 8, 2014

The condemned Delawares spent the night praying and singing hymns.

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