Word.ws English Dictionary

werowance

werowance noun: a chief of an American Indian tribe in colonial Virginia and Maryland.

Noun

werowance (plural werowances)

  1. (historical) A chief of an American Indian tribe in colonial Virginia and Maryland.
    • they stirred not from vs, but walked vp and downe, by and amongst vs, the best of them inquiring for our Weroance or king, with whom they would gladly consult to know the occasion of our comming thither […]1615, Ralph Hamor, A True Discourse of the Present State of Virginia, Richmond, published 1957, page 9
    • they boldly demanded what we were, and what we would; but after many circumstances they seemed very kinde, and directed us to Accomack, the habitation of their Werowance, where we were kindly intreated.1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, Kupperman, published 1988, page 87

Forms of werowance

pluralwerowances
alternative formweroance

Origin of werowance

Apparently borrowed from Powhatan wirowántĕsu (“he is rich”), from wiro (“to be rich”).

Questions about werowance

What does werowance mean?
Werowance means a chief of an American Indian tribe in colonial Virginia and Maryland.
What part of speech is werowance?
Werowance is a noun.
What is the plural of werowance?
The plural of werowance is werowances.

Words near werowance in the dictionary

  1. weroances
  2. weroansqua
  3. weroansquas
  4. Werombi
  5. Werona
  6. werowance
  7. werowances
  8. werowansqua
  9. werowansquas
  10. werq
  11. werqed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: werowance (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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