Wampanoag
Americannoun
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Wampanoags,
plural
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Wampanoag
plural
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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:
They collaborated on “what became the most significant effort to convert Native peoples in English North America”: a translation of the Bible into the Wampanoag language.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
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
It pushes back on the narrative that the first Thanksgiving was a happy meal between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag.
From Salon ● Nov. 23, 2023
Not far from Mr. Kraft’s property, Dale Oakley, an official with the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, stood near the point where the Mashpee River enters Popponesset Bay.
From New York Times ● Jan. 1, 2023
Patuxet was one of the dozen or so settlements in what is now eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island that comprised the Wampanoag confederation.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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
He and Bradford became friends, and Tisquantum and other Wampanoags famously showed the Pilgrims how to plant crops, catch fish and survive in the “New World.”
From Washington Post ● Nov. 25, 2021
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
The Wampanoags, whose name means “People of the First Light” in their native language, trace their ancestors back at least 10,000 years to southeastern Massachusetts, a land they called Patuxet.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 4, 2021
Why then should I deliver up to them the Wampanoags?
From Boys' Book of Indian Warriors and Heroic Indian Women by Edwin L. (Edwin Legrand) Sabin
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