manitou
Americannoun
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manitous,
plural
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manitou
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of manitou
First recorded in 1605–15; from Unami Delaware monə́t·u, reinforced by or reborrowed from Ojibwe manidoo and other cognates (all from unrecorded Proto-Algonquian maneto·wa ); spelling influenced by equivalent French word
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:
Rejecting the Europeans’ acquisitive or utilitarian attitude to wealth or material possessions, they tapped the manitou of foreign products for spiritual power and social prestige as well as practical uses.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 18, 2018
In that part of the Northeast, tisquantum referred to rage, especially the rage of manitou, the world-suffusing spiritual power at the heart of coastal Indians’ religious beliefs.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Then, having heaped them together, he called on his guardian manitou, and together they set to work to make a man.
From Fort Amity by Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
The warriors felt the imminence of the frowning, brooding manitou of Harney; they almost heard the moaned syllables of the Soulless Ones' complaint.
From The Westerners by Stewart Edward White
A storm had come and the bad manitou had thrown trees at him to kill him.
From The Red Mustang by William O. Stoddard
Nokomis was ready to make an offering to the spirits, or manitous.
From "The Birchbark House" by Louise Erdrich
While the snow and ice still held fast, Nokomis told them tales about the world of manitous and windigos, tales of Nanabozho, the comical teacher.
From "The Birchbark House" by Louise Erdrich
When she talked to the manitous, Nokomis dipped out a pinch of tobacco.
From "The Birchbark House" by Louise Erdrich
The spirits, the manitous who lived in all things, why had they ignored her prayers, her mother’s prayers, and the powerful prayers of Nokomis?
From "The Birchbark House" by Louise Erdrich
The serpents, who were all manitous, caused, in their rage, the waters of the lake to deluge the earth.
From The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century by Francis Parkman
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.
