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Ponca

American  
[pong-kuh] / ˈpɒŋ kə /

noun

Poncas, plural Ponca plural
  1. a member of a North American Indian people formerly of northern Nebraska, now living mostly in northern Oklahoma.

  2. the Siouan language of the Ponca, mutually intelligible with Omaha.


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Noun Inflected Forms

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.

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Rissa Pittman, then a store manager in Ponca City, Okla., said it was easier to staff her store after 2015 as wages improved and it became easier to train workers for promotions.

From The Wall Street Journal Oct. 17, 2025

Also, most of the songs are in the Ponca language, a sister to Osage.

From Los Angeles Times Feb. 13, 2024

“I would have preferred that we found the children,” said Judi gaiashkibos, a member of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska and the executive director of the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs.

From Seattle Times Jul. 21, 2023

In 1879, he and 29 other Ponca members traveled back to Nebraska, where they were arrested by the Army and imprisoned in Fort Omaha.

From New York Times May 13, 2023

A week later, another operative from the team—No. 46—was sent to locate Brown in Ponca City, twenty-five miles northwest of Gray Horse.

From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann

He stood high among the Poncas, because of his clan, the Wa-zha-zhe—a clan that could cure rattle-snake bites and work other wonders.

From Boys' Book of Indian Warriors and Heroic Indian Women by Sabin, Edwin L. (Edwin Legrand)

On one occasion, the Poncas made an incursion into Blackbird’s territory, and carried away a number of women and horses.

From Heroes and Hunters of the West Comprising Sketches and Adventures of Boone, Kenton, Brady, Logan, Whetzel, Fleehart, Hughes, Johnson, &c. by Frost, John

They and the Poncas secured the rights of citizens of the United States.

From Boys' Book of Indian Warriors and Heroic Indian Women by Sabin, Edwin L. (Edwin Legrand)

Soon they divided, and held their clan names of Poncas, Omahas, Kansas and Osages.

From Boys' Book of Indian Warriors and Heroic Indian Women by Sabin, Edwin L. (Edwin Legrand)

It was a hot country and a bare country, and not suited to the Poncas, who had good corn-fields and houses in their own country of the Niobrara.

From Boys' Book of Indian Warriors and Heroic Indian Women by Sabin, Edwin L. (Edwin Legrand)

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