Word.ws English Dictionary

wigwam

/ˈwɪɡwɑːm/

wigwam noun: a dwelling having an arched framework overlaid with bark, hides, or mats, used by Native Americans in the northeastern United States.

wigwam: a dwelling having an arched framework overlaid with bark, hides, or mats, used by Native Americans...
Image: Edward S. Curtis, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

wigwam (plural wigwams)

  1. A dwelling having an arched framework overlaid with bark, hides, or mats, used by Native Americans in the northeastern United States.
  2. (dated, possibly) Any more or less similar dwelling used by indigenous people in other parts of the world.
    • Their houſes or wigwams, which they call carbets, are built as I have already deſcribed thoſe of the negroes; but inſtead of being covered with the leaves of the manicole-tree, they are covered with the leaves of rattans or jointed canes, here called tas, which grow in cluſters in all marſhy...1796, J[ohn] G[abriel] Stedman, chapter XV, in Narrative of a Five Years’ Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam, in Guiana, on the Wild Coast of South America; […], volume I, London...
    • The Fuegian wigwam resembles, in size and dimensions, a haycock. It merely consists of a few broken branches stuck in the ground, and very imperfectly thatched on one side with a few tufts of grass and rushes.1845 edition, Charles Darwin, Journal and Remarks (The Voyage of the Beagle)

Verb

wigwam (third-person singular simple present wigwams, present participle wigwamming, simple past and past participle wigwammed)

  1. (transitive) To dry (flax or straw) by standing it outside in the shape of a wigwam.

wigwam meaning in Tamil

wigwam in Tamil

செவ்விந்தியர் கூடாரம்

Forms of wigwam

Noun
pluralwigwams
Verb
third-person singular presentwigwams
present participlewigwamming
past participlewigwammed
pastwigwammed

Origin of wigwam

Borrowed from Abenaki wigwôm (“house”) or Penobscot wigwom (“house”), from Proto-Algonquian *wi·kiwa·ʔmi (“house”). Doublet of wickiup.

Words formed from wigwam

Phrases with wigwam

Questions about wigwam

What does wigwam mean?
Wigwam means a dwelling having an arched framework overlaid with bark, hides, or mats, used by Native Americans in the northeastern United States.
What is wigwam in Tamil?
Wigwam in Tamil is செவ்விந்தியர் கூடாரம். See Wigwam meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is wigwam?
Wigwam can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce wigwam?
Wigwam is pronounced /ˈwɪɡwɑːm/.
What is the plural of wigwam?
The plural of wigwam is wigwams.

Words near wigwam in the dictionary

  1. wigwagged
  2. wigwagger
  3. wigwaggers
  4. wigwagging
  5. wigwags
  6. wigwam
  7. wigwam burner
  8. wigwam burners
  9. wigwam for a goose's bridle
  10. wigwamlike
  11. wigwammed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wigwam (page history and authors); wigwam (Tamil 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)-Vealhurl-wigwam.wav.

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