Word.ws English Dictionary

musquaw

musquaw noun: the American black bear.

Noun

musquaw (plural musquaws)

  1. The American black bear.

Forms of musquaw

pluralmusquaws

Origin of musquaw

From a Native American (probably Algonquian) word. Perhaps from Abenaki moskwas (“muskrat, musquash”). The use of a Native American word for one animal to designate a different animal was not uncommon; compare woodchuck (“groundhog”), from an Algonquian word for the fisher marten.

Questions about musquaw

What does musquaw mean?
Musquaw means the American black bear.
What part of speech is musquaw?
Musquaw is a noun.
What is the plural of musquaw?
The plural of musquaw is musquaws.

Words near musquaw in the dictionary

  1. musous
  2. Muspell
  3. musquash
  4. musquashes
  5. musquaspen
  6. musquaw
  7. musquaws
  8. Musqueam
  9. musquet
  10. musqueteer
  11. musqueteers

Source and license

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