Wampanoag
Americannoun
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a member of a once-powerful North American Indian people who inhabited the area east of Narragansett Bay from Rhode Island to Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket at the time of the Pilgrim settlement.
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the Eastern Algonquian speech of the Wampanoag people, a dialect of Massachusett.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of Wampanoag
An Americanism dating back to 1670–80, from Narragansett (spoken in Rhode Island, west of the Wampanoag); literally “those of the east; easterners,” equivalent to Proto-Algonquian *wa·pan ( w )- “dawn” + -o·w- “person of” + *-aki plural suffix
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.
See Examples For:
Thanksgiving is thought to be modeled on a 1621 harvest meal between the Wampanoag people and English colonists known as Pilgrims.
From Barron's ● Nov. 27, 2025
Americans have celebrated Thanksgiving for more than 400 years, beginning in 1621 when the Pilgrims and Wampanoag came together for their famous feast.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 25, 2025
The Mashpee Wampanoag have lived on Cape Cod for thousands of years, and have 170 acres of reservation land within the boundaries of Mashpee.
From New York Times ● Jan. 1, 2023
The Wampanoag leader Metacomet was named Philip by English settlers.
From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022
If the Wampanoag and Mexica had shamans who could magically inflict sickness, why couldn’t the British?
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Cedric Cromwell, former chair of the Mashpee Wampanoags, was also sentenced in U.S.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 16, 2022
He looks forward to returning years and decades from now not just to see how the plants he helped nourish take hold, but also how Wampanoags use the restored land.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 24, 2022
A plague had killed many Wampanoags before the Pilgrims arrived, and in the winter of 1620-21 the Pilgrims were dying off, too.
From New York Times ● Nov. 22, 2021
Relations between the Wampanoags and Plymouth grew especially tense by the early 1670s.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 18, 2018
The whites at Weymouth were driven away and the palefaces at Plymouth continued to live on most excellent terms of friendship with the Wampanoags.
From Four American Indians King Philip, Pontiac, Tecumseh, Osceola by Perry, F. M. (Frances Melville)
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.
