Powhatan
Americannoun
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a member of any of the Indian tribes belonging to the Powhatan Confederacy.
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the Eastern Algonquian language spoken by the Powhatan people.
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c1550–1618, North American Indian chief in Virginia, father of Pocahontas and founder of the Powhatan Confederacy.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Example Sentences
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Named for the Powhatan word for "cloud," Arrokoth is a double-lobed object that resembles a squished snowman.
From Salon ● May 7, 2023
The department deserves credit for adding Gen. Winfield Scott, as well as William Harvey Carney and Powhatan Beaty, African American soldiers from Virginia, to the Standards of Learning.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 26, 2023
Between 1609 and 1646, Virginia colonists fought a series of wars with the Powhatan Confederacy, an alliance of tribes that spoke languages of the Algonquin family.
From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022
It happened around 7:40 p.m. on I-49 northbound near Powhatan, a village in the parish, the sheriff’s office said.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 7, 2022
Then I remember how Captain Smith dressed as a warrior to bring news of the coronation to Chief Powhatan, how he said this news would not sit well with the chief.
From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone
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They spoke a different language from the more coastal Powhatans, the tribe that first had contact with the English at the Jamestown settlement, and they avoided European contact for years.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 16, 2022
A 1622 uprising by local Powhatans and drought-induced shortages of food contributed to the death toll, but most perished from disease.
From Salon ● May 3, 2020
Relations with the native residents were mixed, with the Powhatans providing food but also chafing under the demands of colonists, who died by the hundreds in the settlement’s early years.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 18, 2018
Like the related tribes who had sparred with the Roanoke colonists, the Powhatans grew corn, beans, and squash, lived in bark-covered houses, and hunted game and seafood with stone-tipped arrows.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 18, 2018
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Then two of the new settlers, both gentlemen, tell him how much they want to help make peace with the Powhatans.
From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone
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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.