Word.ws English Dictionary

Ojibwe

UK/əˈdʒɪbweɪ//oʊˈdʒɪbweɪ/

Ojibwe adjective: of or pertaining to this people, culture or language.

Adjective

Ojibwe (comparative more Ojibwe, superlative most Ojibwe)

  1. Of or pertaining to this people, culture or language.
    • Then for 50 years its story lay dormant — although the Dream Dance remained a component of Ojibwe life both north and south of the Canada-U.S. border until its rediscovery by a Winnipeg historian and her colleagues.1998, David H. Pentland (editor), Papers of the Twenty-ninth Algonquian Conference, page 169

Noun

Ojibwe (plural Ojibwes or Ojibwe)

  1. A member of a native Algonquin people of central Canada.
    • The Anishinaabe people are American Indians who have historically been associated with the Great Lakes region of what is now called Canada and the United States. The Anishinaabe people of the Great Lakes include the Odawas (also known as the Ottawas), the Chippewas (also known as the Ojibwes), and...2022 May 5, Arland Thornton, Alphonse Pitawanakwat, Eric Hemenway, Lindsey Willow Smith, Linda Young DeMarco, Anishinaabe Geography in the 1930 Decennial Census—and the Use of this Geography in...

Proper noun

Ojibwe

  1. The language spoken by the native Algonquin people of central Canada, one of a closely related group of languages and dialects of the Algonquian branch of the Algic language family.
    • On a Tuesday in April 2017, Janet Macbeth composed an all-office email. “My story,” read the subject line in Nishnaabemwin, the Ojibwe language.
      “Hello everyone,” the email continued in Nishnaabemwin. “My name is Janet.”2019 November 15, Kate Allen, “‘I am Janet.’ One transgender woman’s journey and her pioneering surgery”, in Toronto Star, archived from the original on 17 Jul 2024
    • Endangered language communities would be thrilled with and proud of that kind of exposure for their language, like when Star Wars was dubbed into Navajo and Ojibwe.2023 December 30, Daniel W. Hieber, “Why I hate conlangs”, in Linguistic Discovery, archived from the original on 24 May 2024

Ojibwe meaning in Marathi, Bengali and Thai

Ojibwe in Marathi

member of Ojibwe people
ओजिबवे ojibve
Ojibwe language
ओजिबवे ojibve

Ojibwe in Bengali

এই জনগোষ্ঠী, সংস্কৃতি, বা ভাষা সংক্রান্ত

Ojibwe in Thai

Ojibwe language
ภาษาโอจิบเว paasăa ohjìpway

Synonyms of Ojibwe

Forms of Ojibwe

Adjective
comparativemore Ojibwe
superlativemost Ojibwe
alternative form (archaic)Ojibwa
alternative form (archaic)Ojibway
Noun
pluralOjibwes
pluralOjibwe

Origin of Ojibwe

First attested in English around 1700 (and attested in early French as Outchibouec), from the Ojibwe name of an individual band of Ojibwe, of unclear origin. The most widely accepted theory connects it to Ojibwe ojibwaakide (“it shrivels, it puckers in the fire”), in reference to the puckering or tightening of moccasins at their seams or near fire. Alternatively, Helen Tanner and Edmund Danzinger connect it to the Ojibwe practice of writing on birch bark or making pictographs, respectively; compare ozhibii' (“write (someone's name) down”). Other, less credible theories: Other, less likely suggestions include: Henry Schoolcraft derived it from a word *bwe "pertaining to voice" ((compare bedowe (“have a soft voice”)), and like George Belcourt, believed it referred to a peculiarity of the tribe's (language's) pronunciation. Some other works connect it to the word for puckering the lips, which however is bajiishkidooneni (“she or he puckers the lips”), or assert that it refers to roasting captives until their flesh puckered, but this was not a common practice and is improbable as a self-designation.

Questions about Ojibwe

What does Ojibwe mean?
Ojibwe means of or pertaining to this people, culture or language.
What is Ojibwe in Marathi?
Ojibwe in Marathi is ओजिबवे (ojibve). See Ojibwe meaning in Marathi.
What part of speech is Ojibwe?
Ojibwe can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Ojibwe?
Ojibwe is pronounced /əˈdʒɪbweɪ/ (UK).

Words near Ojibwe in the dictionary

  1. ojha
  2. ojhas
  3. Ojibwa
  4. Ojibway
  5. Ojibways
  6. Ojibwe
  7. Ojibwemowin
  8. Ojibwes
  9. ojime
  10. ojimes
  11. Ojinaga

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Ojibwe (page history and authors); Ojibwe (Bengali Wiktionary) (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)-Flame, not lame-Ojibwe.wav.

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