English Explanatory Dictionary

Spokane

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A Native American Plateau tribe who inhabited the eastern portion of Washington state and parts of northern Idaho.
name
  1. The language of the Spokane tribe, a member of the Salish (or Salishan) language family.
  2. A large city, the county seat of Spokane County, Washington.
  3. A tributary of the Columbia River in Washington and Idaho.
  4. Any of various other places in the United States.

Pronunciation

/spoʊˈkæn/ En-us-Spokane.ogg

Word forms

Spokane

Etymology

A number of etymologies of the name have been proposed, most frequently “Sun children”, “children of the Sun”, or “muddy people”. According to Barry Pritzker (2011), these interpretations are most probably popular etymologies derived from an actual self-designation of Spokane Spoqe'ind (“round head”).

Related words

Wiktionary’s coverage of Spokane terms

Derived words

Spokane County Spokane Valley Spokanite
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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