Milwaukee

M3I1L1W4A1U1K5E1E1
UK/mɪlˈwɔː.kiː/US/mɪlˈwɔk.i//məˈwɔk.i/ [məˈwɒki ~ məˈwɑki]/məˈwɑ.ki/ [məˈwɑki]

proper noun

The largest city in Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County.

CommonScrabble 18

Meanings

proper noun

alternative archaic Milwaukie

  1. A number of places in the United States.
    1. The largest city in Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County.

      A GoFundMe page was created by the family and talked about how Sorenson spent her last moments celebrating the beauty of life and how she had a true passion for the Milwaukee Dancing Grannies.

      2022 October 26, Christina Zdanowicz, Claudia Dominguez, Lauren M. Johnson and Sara Smart, “The Waukesha victims included an 8-year-old boy, a loving grandmother and a woman excited to make her debut in the Dancing Grannies”, in CNN
      2 more examples

      During the Toronto Raptors' championship run, a fan-made sign referred to the opposing Milwaukee Bucks as the "Milwaukee Bucktees," bucktee being an insult deriving from a similar word in Somali.

      2019 October 13, “Toronto slang on the rise thanks to city's growing pop culture relevance”, in CBC News, archived from the original on 06 Jul 2022

      There was no location, really — most of the convention took place in a Milwaukee of the mind. […] Instead, the teleconvention kept a few standards (like the Bruce Springsteen–soundtracked montage) and borrowed from a grab bag of other TV formats, from talk show to cable news to reality-TV reunion special.

      2020 August 18, James Poniewozik, “A D.N.C. Opening Night for the New Abnormal”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 21 Aug 2020

Origin

  1. Ojibweominowakiing“gathering place (by the water)”
  2. EnglishMilwaukee

Perhaps from Ojibwe ominowakiing (“gathering place (by the water)”), or an Algonquin word meaning “the good land”.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

Milwaukee. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Milwaukee

MLA

“Milwaukee.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Milwaukee. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Milwaukee,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Milwaukee.

Source: Milwaukee on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.