Kwakiutl
Americannoun
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Also called Kwakwaka'wakw. a member of one of the First Nations of Vancouver Island and the adjacent coast of mainland British Columbia.
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Also called Kwak'wala. the Wakashan language of the Kwakiutl.
adjective
noun
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a member of a North American Indian people of N Vancouver Island and the adjacent mainland
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the language of this people, belonging to the Wakashan family
Etymology
Origin of Kwakiutl
First recorded in 1845–50; from Kwakiutl Kwagu'ł, a place name
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 the Pacific Northwest, salmon and other fish were so plentiful that the Haida, Tlingit, and Kwakiutl tribes built elaborate and complex cultures based on the sea.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 18, 2018
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Rivers in the rainy forests of the Pacific Northwest attracted annual swarms of salmon, which members of the Chinook, Kwakiutl, Haida, and Tlingit tribes harvested and dried to last all year.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 18, 2018
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After 1849, the Kwakiutl population was decimated, but it survives.
From New York Times ● Jan. 4, 2017
Kwakiutl or Tsimshian, with their exquisite shell-inlay work and flowing, knife-blade forms that so inexplicably resemble archaic Chinese bronze decoration, without feeling some instant response to the vitality of their stylistic language.
From Time Magazine Archive
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This is the case with the Ainu, the Maoris, the Greenlanders, the Kwakiutl of Northwest America,1808 and is probably the rule in most of the lower communities.
From Introduction to the History of Religions Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV by Jastrow, Morris
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.