Sioux

American  

[soo] / su /

noun

• Sioux
  plural

1. Dakota.

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Sioux British  

/ suː /

noun

1. a member of a group of North American Indian peoples formerly ranging over a wide area of the Plains from Lake Michigan to the Rocky Mountains

2. any of the Siouan languages

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Sioux Cultural  

1. A common name for the Dakota people, a tribe of Native Americans inhabiting the northern Great Plains in the nineteenth century. They were famed as warriors and frequently took up arms in the late nineteenth century to oppose the settlement of their hunting grounds and sacred places. In 1876, Sioux warriors, led by Chief Sitting Bull, and commanded in the field by Chief Crazy Horse, overwhelmed the United States cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. (See Custer's last stand.) A group of Sioux under Chief Big Foot were massacred by United States troops at Wounded Knee in 1890.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• Sioux
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of Sioux

An Americanism dating back to 1755–65; from North American French, shortening of earlier Nadouessioux from Ojibwe (Ottawa dialect) na·towe·ssiw(ak) (plural), from unattested Proto-Algonquian na·towe·hsiw-, derivative of unattested na·towe·wa ”Iroquoian,” probably literally, “speaker of a foreign language”) + French -x plural marker

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Sioux

For example, Jason Galanis, who pled guilty to defrauding the Oglala Sioux Nation, had paid just over $2 million of his $80 million restitution before his sentence was commuted and the restitution erased in 2025.

From Salon ● Sep. 27, 2026

Goth icon Siouxsie Sioux also became an influence, particularly in the use of layering, texture and attitude.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 20, 2026

"I don't know where I'd be now if it wasn't for Sioux and this place," she said.

From BBC ● Mar. 20, 2026

At the heart of the North Dakota court battle was the Dakota Access Pipeline, where from 2016 to 2017 the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe led one of the largest anti-fossil-fuel protests in US history.

From Barron's ● Feb. 27, 2026

In Sioux Falls, Gramps took off his shirt.

From "Walk Two Moons" by Sharon Creech

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