Ottawa

American  

[ot-uh-wuh] / ˈɒt ə wə /

noun

• Ottawas,
  plural
• Ottawa
  plural

1. a city in and the capital of Canada, in southeastern Ontario.

2. a river in southeastern Canada, flowing southeast along the boundary between Ontario and Quebec into the St. Lawrence River at Montreal. 685 miles (1,105 kilometers) long.

3. a city in northeastern Illinois, southwest of Chicago.

4. a town in eastern Kansas.

5. Also called Odawa. a member of a tribe of Algonquian people of Canada, forced into the Lake Superior and Lake Michigan regions by the Iroquois confederacy.

6. Also called Odawa. the Ojibwe language as used by the Ottawa.

---

Ottawa British  

/ ˈɒtəwə /

noun

1. the capital of Canada, in E Ontario on the Ottawa River: name changed from Bytown to Ottawa in 1854. Pop: 774 072 (2001)

2. a river in central Canada, rising in W Quebec and flowing west, then southeast to join the St Lawrence River as its chief tributary at Montreal; forms the border between Quebec and Ontario for most of its length. Length: 1120 km (696 miles)

---

Ottawa Cultural  

1. Capital of Canada, located in southeastern Ontario across the Ottawa River from Quebec.

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• Ottawa
  plural
• Ottawas
  plural

---

Etymology

Origin of Ottawa

First recorded in 1660–70; from French Outaouan, or directly from Ojibwe Ota·wa· “traders”

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Ottawa Ottawas

Meanwhile, in Canada, Cleveland-Cliffs is digging in on planned layoffs at its Stelco operations, as Ottawa weighs legal options to protect workers, the Journal’s Robb M. Stewart writes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 20, 2026

Addressing the nation on Sunday from Ottawa, Prime Minister Mark Carney described it as "one of the worst tragedies for the forces on Canadian soil in peacetime".

From BBC ● Oct. 18, 2026

Calls for Ottawa to take action have grown in recent days after Stelco began handing out layoff notices.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

"I congratulated him on his victory. We discussed the ways that we would work together," Carney told reporters in Ottawa.

From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026

Zizmo drives through the gloom, past the octagonal gazebos and the monument of the Civil War Hero, and into the woods where the Ottawa once held their summer camp.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides

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

By the Ottawas I am called "Little Crane."

From Time Magazine Archive

The tribes, or rather fragments of tribes, represented at this meeting, were the Ottawas, Ojibwas, Pottawattamies, Miamis, Sacs, and Wyandots.

From The Conspiracy of Pontiac and the Indian War after the Conquest of Canada by Francis Parkman

Though the Ottawas and Ojibwas had come to terms, they still looked on each other with distrust, and it is said that the former never forgot the slight that had been put upon them.

From The Conspiracy of Pontiac and the Indian War after the Conquest of Canada by Francis Parkman

The194 Ottawas had no political connection with the Wyandots, who speak a language radically distinct.

From The Conspiracy of Pontiac and the Indian War after the Conquest of Canada by Francis Parkman

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---