Word.ws English Dictionary

Winona

Syllables: Wi·no·na/wɪˈnoʊnə/

Winona proper noun: a female given name from Dakota, used mainly in the United States.

Proper noun

Winona

  1. A female given name from Dakota, used mainly in the United States.
    • I've met the full Clairol spectrum of Winonas, and I have come to recognize them the way you might watch for pretty little coral snakes in Florida. Isn't that sweet? you think—until it bites you and you die. Just like those pretty little snakes, Winona talks in a sort of a soft and wispy hiss and...2001, Julia Cameron, God Is No Laughing Matter
  2. A community in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
  3. A locality in Coconino County, Arizona.
  4. An unincorporated community in North Bend Township, Starke County, Indiana.
  5. A city in Logan County, Kansas.
  6. An unincorporated community in Elm River Township, Houghton County, Michigan.
  7. A city, the county seat of Winona County, Minnesota.
    • Eight Flock cameras that were stolen across Winona will not be replaced, the city’s police department announced on Wednesday.2026 August 12, Kyle Brown, “Winona won’t replace Flock cameras after thefts took all of the city’s devices offline”, in KSTP-TV, archived from the original on 13 Aug 2026
  8. A city, the county seat of Montgomery County, Mississippi.
  9. A city in Shannon County, Missouri.
  10. An unincorporated community in Butler Township, Columbiana County, Ohio.
  11. An unincorporated community in Putnam County, Tennessee.
  12. An unincorporated community in Scott County, Tennessee.
Show 3 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. A city in Smith County, Texas.
  2. An unincorporated community in Fayette County, West Virginia.
  3. An unincorporated community in Taylor County, West Virginia.

Forms of Winona

alternative formWenona
alternative formWenonah
alternative formWynona

Origin of Winona

From Dakota winúŋna (“firstborn daughter”). While not originally used as a personal name by the Dakota, it has been adopted as such by English speakers. John Koontz suggested that the name was a compound of wi- (“female”) + no (“first”) + -na (a diminutive suffix) and thus a reflex of Proto-Siouan *rǫ/*nǫ (“one”). That root is otherwise unattested in the Sioux languages, which use reflexes of *wį(y)ą (“one”) instead, and a more prosaic analysis identifies the first elements of the name with winyan (“woman”).

Words formed from Winona

Phrases with Winona

Words that rhyme with Winona

24 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about Winona

What does Winona mean?
Winona means a female given name from Dakota, used mainly in the United States.
What part of speech is Winona?
Winona is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Winona?
Winona is pronounced /wɪˈnoʊnə/.

Words near Winona in the dictionary

  1. Winograd
  2. Winograds
  3. Winogradsky test
  4. Winokur
  5. Winokurs
  6. Winona
  7. Winona County
  8. Winona Junction
  9. Winooski
  10. winos
  11. WinPE

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Winona (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Winona.wav.

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