Shoshone

American  

[shoh-shoh-nee] / ʃoʊˈʃoʊ ni /

Also Shoshoni

noun

plural

Shoshones,

plural

Shoshone

1. a river in NW Wyoming, flowing NE into the Big Horn River. 120 miles (193 km) long.

2. a member of any of several Numic-speaking peoples of California, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming.

3. the language or languages of the Shoshone.

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Shoshone British  

/ ʃəʊˈʃəʊnɪ /

noun

1. a member of a North American Indian people of the southwestern US, related to the Aztecs

2. the language of this people, belonging to the Uto-Aztecan family

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Etymology

Origin of Shoshone

An Americanism dating back to 1805; < an Eastern Shoshone band name

Example Sentences

Others—including York, Clark’s enslaved manservant, and Sacagawea, a kidnapped Shoshone teenager pregnant with the child of the expedition’s interpreter, Charbonneau—did not have a say in the matter.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 16, 2026

For the Southern Paiute and Western Shoshone, Eagle Mountain holds profound cultural significance — woven into their creation stories and Salt Songs, understood as a “passage to the sky.”

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 5, 2026

We walked to the end of town, where spring-fed pools hold the fate of the only population of Shoshone pupfish in the world.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 5, 2026

To choose the name, the research team, led by University of Utah biology professor Michael Werner, worked with the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation.

From Science Daily • Jan. 10, 2026

At that end were many of the Shoshone, Crow, and Ankara scouts.

From "In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse" by Joseph Marshall III