Totem Definition

tōtəm
totems
noun
Among some peoples, an animal or natural object considered as being ancestrally related to a given kin or descent group and taken as its symbol.
Webster's New World
An image of this.
Webster's New World
A social group having a common affiliation to such an object.
American Heritage
A symbol, esp. one held in high regard.
Webster's New World
A venerated emblem or symbol.
American Heritage
Synonyms:

Other Word Forms of Totem

Noun

Singular:
totem
Plural:
totems

Origin of Totem

  • Ojibwa nindoodem my totem

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • from Ojibwe (o)doodem(an)

    From Wiktionary

Totem Sentence Examples

  • He was one of the founders of the study of " Psychical Research," and his other writings on anthropology include The Book of Dreams and Ghosts (1897), Magic and Religion (1901) and The Secret of the Totem (1905).

  • This tribe may legally marry within the totem, but always avoids such unions.

  • Among the Caribs a like social order prevailed; indeed, their family system is identical with the totem system of North American Indians.

  • Each spirit, as it quits its nanja or natural haunt to enter the mother, drops a churinga, a slab of stone or wood marked with the child's totem and containing its spirit attributes.

  • The warrior painted the story of conflicts on his robe only in part, to help him recount the history of his life; the Eskimo etched the prompters of his legend on ivory; the Tlinkit carved them on his totem post; the women fixed them in pottery, basketry, or blankets.

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Words Starting With

TTOTOT

Words Ending With

MEMTEM

Unscrambles

totem

Words Starting With T and Ending With M

Starts With T & Ends With MStarts With TO & Ends With MStarts With T & Ends With EM

Word Length

5 Letter Words5 Letter Words Starting With T5 Letter Words Ending With M