Word.ws English Dictionary

kemosabe

kemosabe noun: an appellation given to a wise, trustworthy friend.

Noun

kemosabe (plural not attested)

  1. (colloquial, no plural) An appellation given to a wise, trustworthy friend.
    • Wanna get a beer? / Nah. / Come on. Let's get a beer. / Okay, leave me alone, leave me alone. / Don't stay up too late, kemosabe.2019, Edward Norton, Motherless Brooklyn, spoken by Tony, Lionel (Bobby Cannavale, Edward Norton)

Forms of kemosabe

alternative formkemosabi
alternative formkemo sabe
alternative formke-mo sah-bee

Origin of kemosabe

Coined for the 1938 Lone Ranger television serial. Further etymology uncertain: *Some trace the word through the Kee-Mo Sah-Bee summer camp in Michigan to Ojibwe giimoozaabi (“he spies”). See more at Wikipedia. *Alternatively, from a corruption of Spanish quien lo sabe "(he) who knows".

Questions about kemosabe

What does kemosabe mean?
Kemosabe means an appellation given to a wise, trustworthy friend.
What part of speech is kemosabe?
Kemosabe is a noun.

Words near kemosabe in the dictionary

  1. kemongs
  2. kemono
  3. kemonomimi
  4. kemonomimis
  5. kemonos
  6. kemosabe
  7. kemosabes
  8. kemosabi
  9. kemp
  10. Kemp Town
  11. Kemp's loggerhead

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kemosabe (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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Cite this entry: “kemosabe.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kemosabe. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.