Spokane

S1P3O1K5A1N1E1
/spoʊˈkæn/

noun

A Native American Plateau tribe who inhabited the eastern portion of Washington state and parts of northern Idaho.

Originspo Spoqe'ind →
CommonScrabble 13
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

nounSpokane pl (plural only)
  1. pluralplural onlyA Native American Plateau tribe who inhabited the eastern portion of Washington state and parts of northern Idaho.
proper noun
  1. The language of the Spokane tribe, a member of the Salish (or Salishan) language family.
  2. A large city, the county seat of Spokane County, Washington.
  3. A tributary of the Columbia River in Washington and Idaho.
  4. Any of various other places in the United States.

Origin

  1. spoSpoqe'ind“round head”
  2. EnglishSpokane

A number of etymologies of the name have been proposed, most frequently “Sun children”, “children of the Sun”, or “muddy people”. According to Barry Pritzker (2011), these interpretations are most probably popular etymologies derived from an actual self-designation of Spokane Spoqe'ind (“round head”).

More words from spo

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

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