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:
Plymouth occupies a singular place in the American story, with a rich history of the Pilgrims, the Wampanoag people and their complicated relationship.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 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
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
Similarly, groups like the Wampanoag, Narragansett, and Haude- nosaunee in eastern North America also thought at first that Europeans might have supernatural qualities.
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
Today, some members of the Wampanoags regret that their ancestors showed such hospitality to the new arrivals.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 23, 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
Long marginalized and misrepresented in the American story, the Wampanoags are braced for what’s coming this month as the country marks the 400th anniversary of the first Thanksgiving between the Pilgrims and Indians.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 4, 2021
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 F. M. (Frances Melville) Perry
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.
