Word.ws English Dictionary

Chono

Chono noun: a member of an extinct indigenous people of the southern Chilean archipelago.

Noun

Chono (plural Chonos or Chono)

  1. A member of an extinct indigenous people of the southern Chilean archipelago.
    • [T]he appellation by which the Indians after whom the islands inhabited by them were called the Archipelago de los Chonos, were known to the early missionaries, etc., of Chile. According to Lenz (Dicc. etimol., p.312), Chono is probably the name given by these Indians to themselves. Its etymology...1911, Alexander F Chamberlain, “On the Puelchean and Tsonekan (Tehuelchean), the Atacameñan (Atacaman) and Chonoan, and the Charruan Linguistic Stocks of South America.”, in American Anthropologist...

Proper noun

Chono

  1. The language spoken by the Chono.
    • It seems not entirely certain that Chono is forgotten, and an exploration for surviving speakers, as well as for individuals who may know the neighboring Atacaman, is urgently needed.1923, A. L. Kroeber, “Review: El Grupo Lingüistico Alakaluf journal= American Anthropologist”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volume 25, number 4, page 570

Forms of Chono

pluralChonos
pluralChono
alternative formChonoan

Questions about Chono

What does Chono mean?
Chono means a member of an extinct indigenous people of the southern Chilean archipelago.
What part of speech is Chono?
Chono can be a noun or a proper noun.
What is the plural of Chono?
The plural of Chono is Chonos.

Words near Chono in the dictionary

  1. chonking up
  2. chonks
  3. chonks up
  4. chonky
  5. chonmage
  6. Chono
  7. chonolith
  8. Chonos
  9. chonotropic
  10. CHONPS
  11. Chons

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Chono (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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