Erie

American  

[eer-ee] / ˈɪər i /

noun

• Eries,
  plural
• Erie
  plural

1. Lake, a lake between the NE central United States and SE central Canada: the southernmost lake of the Great Lakes; site of the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813 in which Commodore Perry defeated the British. 239 miles (385 km) long; 9,940 sq. mi. (25,745 sq. km).

2. a port in NW Pennsylvania, on Lake Erie.

3. a member of a tribe of American Indians formerly living along the southern shore of Lake Erie.

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Erie ¹ British  

/ ˈɪərɪ /

noun

1. a member of a North American Indian people formerly living south of Lake Erie

2. the language of this people, possibly belonging to the Iroquoian family

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Erie ² British  

/ ˈɪərɪ /

noun

1. a lake between the US and Canada: the southernmost and the shallowest of the Great Lakes; empties by the Niagara River into Lake Ontario. Area: 25 718 sq km (9930 sq miles)

2. a port in NW Pennsylvania, on Lake Erie. Pop: 101 373 (2003 est)

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• Erie
  plural
• Eries
  plural

Etymology

Origin of Erie

From Erie (an Iroquoian language) Erie, Eriez, shortening of Erielhonan “long tail” (the Erie were called the Cat People, referring to the cougar)

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Erie Eries

The names of four of the Great Lakes - Ontario, Huron, Michigan and Erie - originate from indigenous words.

From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026

So, Molly and her husband took Eunice to a hotel on Lake Erie and checked into a two-bedroom suite.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026

Furious, Vanderbilt sought revenge by cornering Erie stock, buying up all available shares.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026

In 1868, he collided with his friend Daniel Drew, in what would become known as the Erie War.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026

If he’d given you those four bankbooks to do what you liked, to buy up the Erie Lackawanna Railroad, he could have had her all he liked, right?

From "Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison

“This aquifer, they estimate, contains eight Lake Eries of water, and they have already nearly depleted one. It’s like draining the Great Lakes, but we don’t see it.”

From The New Yorker ● Dec. 11, 2016

Why hast thou, Spirit, beguiled us into the toils of our enemies, the Eries?

From Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 3 by James Athearn Jones

It was a collection of disbanded tribes, who had belonged to the Hurons, to the Tionnontatés, to the Neutral, to the Eries and du Feu tribes.

From The Makers of Canada: Champlain by N.-E. (Narcisse-Eutrope) Dionne

He supposes the discovery of America to have taken place during the reign of the thirteenth Atotarho; and he adds that the conquest and dispersion of the Eries occurred "about this time."

From The Iroquois Book of Rites by Horatio Hale

Near Bah-flo this morning a party of Eries shot one without success.

From Armageddon—2419 A.D. by Philip Francis Nowlan