Word.ws English Dictionary

manitou

/ˈmanɪtuː/

manitou noun: a god or spirit as the object of religious awe or ritual among some American Indians.

Noun

manitou (plural manitous)

  1. A god or spirit as the object of religious awe or ritual among some American Indians.
    • The favourite abode of this Manitou is still shown. It is a great rock or cliff on the loneliest part of the mountains, and, … is known by the name of the Garden Rock.1819, Washington Irving, The Sketch Book, Rip Van Winkle
    • If it were possible to translate the comprehensive and melodious language in which he spoke, the ode might read something like the following: "Manitou! Manitou! Manitou! Thou art great, thou art good, thou art wise: Manitou! Manitou! Thou art just."1826, James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans, published 1888, page 319

Proper noun capitalized: Manitou

Manitou

  1. Synonym of Supreme Being.
    • If they are hereafter obliged to confess, that they belong to no one particular church, I shall have the consolation of teaching them that great, that primary worship which is the foundation of all others. If they do not fear God according to the tenets of any one seminary, they shall learn to...1782, J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur, Letters from an American Farmer
    Synonyms:
    Supreme Being
  2. A community in the Municipality of Pembina, Manitoba, Canada.
  3. An unincorporated community and census-designated place in Hopkins County, Kentucky, United States.
  4. A hamlet in Philipstown, Putnam County, New York, United States.
  5. An unincorporated community in Mountrail County, North Dakota, United States.
  6. A town in Tillman County, Oklahoma, United States.

Examples of manitou in a sentence

  • Each Ojibway shaman's method of communication with the manitou patron is unique and is related to a personal dream experience.1987, John A Grim, The Shaman, page 143:
  • My father strung it high in a tree for the manitous to watch over.2005, Joseph Boyden, Three Day Road, Penguin, published 2008, page 43:

Synonyms of manitou

Forms of manitou

pluralmanitous

Origin of manitou

From Pidgin Delaware Manétto, from Unami manëtu and Munsee manútoow, later influenced by French manitou, from Cree/Montagnais manito꞉w; from Proto-Algonquian *maneto·wa (“supernatural being”).

The Supreme Being sense is a proprialization from the common noun, manitou.

Words formed from manitou

Questions about manitou

What does manitou mean?
Manitou means a god or spirit as the object of religious awe or ritual among some American Indians.
How do you use manitou in a sentence?
Each Ojibway shaman's method of communication with the manitou patron is unique and is related to a personal dream experience.
What part of speech is manitou?
Manitou can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce manitou?
Manitou is pronounced /ˈmanɪtuː/.
What is the plural of manitou?
The plural of manitou is manitous.

Words near manitou in the dictionary

  1. Manitobah
  2. Manitoban
  3. Manitobans
  4. Manitoid
  5. manitos
  6. manitou
  7. Manitou Lake
  8. Manitou Springs
  9. Manitoulin
  10. Manitoulin District
  11. Manitoulin Island

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: manitou (page history and authors); Manitou (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-manitou.wav.

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