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.
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
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
In Hunt’s wake the Patuxet community raged, as did the rest of the Wampanoag confederacy and the Nauset.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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.
