Lenape
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of Lenape
1720–30, < Unami Delaware ləná·p·e (equivalent to Proto-Algonquian *elen- ordinary + *-a·pe·w man)
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.
See Examples For:
Suddenly in 1745 among the Lenape, Brainerd led an awakening.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
Next to the letter, posted to the wall, is a statement signed by three chiefs of contemporary communities of the Lenape, whose ancestors inhabited Manhattan when the Dutch arrived.
From New York Times ● Mar. 16, 2024
As a Quaker, Penn sought peaceful interactions with the Lenape people, said Jean Soderlund, a retired professor of history at Lehigh University.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 11, 2024
Lehigh University’s Bethlehem campus is home to the Delaware Nation of Oklahoma’s extension Tribal Historic Preservation Office, which is part of their Lenape homelands.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 13, 2023
But after we learned about the Lenape, the Lenape people, I couldn’t do that hand thing anymore.
From "Harbor Me" by Jacqueline Woodson
![]()
Leaders of both the Nanticokes and Lenapes said they had tried for years to buy the parcels, but they either couldn’t make the deal come together or they didn’t have enough money.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 28, 2021
The indigenous, matriarchal Lenapes got short shrift; Quakers and Jews were not accepted originally, until the West India Company overruled Gov. Peter Stuyvesant.
From New York Times ● Jan. 4, 2018
So one band, the strongest of the Lenapes, remained beyond the Mississippi, while the others prepared to encounter the nations who were the present lords of the soil.
From Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 2 by Jones, James Athearn
The expounders of dreams gave it as their opinion, that the Great Spirit had bidden the familiar genius of the warrior to reveal to him the work to which he had ordained the Lenapes.
From Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 2 by Jones, James Athearn
Fired at the treachery of these people, and maddened with the loss of their brothers in arms, the Lenapes retired to the thick covert to consult on what was best to be done.
From Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 2 by Jones, James Athearn
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.