Word.ws English Dictionary

munsee

/ˈmʌn.si/

munsee is the archaic spelling of munshi.

Meaning of munshi

Noun

munshi (plural munshis)

  1. (South-Asia) A clerk or secretary.
    • Then Your Committee examined Goneſhamdaſs, who was formerly Moonſhee, or Perſian Tranſlator, to Colonel Graham; [...]1773 June 18, “Fifth Report from the Committee Appointed to Enquire into the Nature, State, and Condition, of the East India Company, and of the British Affairs in the East Indies”, in Reports from...
  2. (South-Asia) A language teacher, especially one teaching Hindustani or Persian.
    • Several of us, at one time or another, engaged "moonshis" or teachers, and tried to learn Hindustani, in which language, with one exception I think, none of us became very proficient.1875 April, [John Arthur Bayley], chapter IV, in Reminiscences of School and Army Life, 1839 to 1859, [London?]: [Privately printed; s.n.], →OCLC, pages 54–55

See all 3 meanings of munshi

Noun capitalized: Munsee

Munsee (plural Munsees or Munsee)

  1. A member of a subtribe and one of the three divisions of the Lenape people.

Proper noun capitalized: Munsee

Munsee

  1. An endangered Eastern Algonquian language, one of the two Lenape/Delaware languages (the other is called Unami), spoken aboriginally in the vicinity of what is now New York City.
    • They stare at her like she’s just spoken in Munsee.2020, N. K. Jemisin, The City We Became, Orbit, page 298

Forms of munsee

pluralmunsees
pluralMunsees
pluralMunsee

Origin of munsee

From Munsee mŭnúsunk (“at the island”), from munús (“island”). Compare Minisink, a doublet from Munsee; cognate for example with Ojibwe minis (“island”), minising (“at the island”).

Words formed from munsee

Questions about munsee

What does munsee mean?
Munsee means a member of a subtribe and one of the three divisions of the Lenape people.
What is munsee the archaic spelling of?
Munsee is the archaic spelling of munshi.
What part of speech is munsee?
Munsee can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce munsee?
Munsee is pronounced /ˈmʌn.si/.
What is the plural of munsee?
The plural of munsee is munsees.

Words near munsee in the dictionary

  1. muns
  2. munsabdar
  3. munsabdars
  4. Munsch
  5. Munsches
  6. munsee
  7. Munsee-Delaware Nation
  8. munsees
  9. Munsell
  10. Munsells
  11. Munses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: munsee (page history and authors); Munsee (page history and authors); munshi (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: “munsee.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/munsee. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.