Wampum Definition

wŏmpəm, wôm-
noun
Small beads made of shells and used by North American Indians as money, for ornament, etc.: they were of two varieties, white and the more valuable black (or dark purple)
Webster's New World
Money.
Webster's New World
Synonyms:

Other Word Forms of Wampum

Noun

Singular:
wampum
Plural:
wampums

Origin of Wampum

  • From wampumpeag (from Narragansett), due to Europeans' mistaken interpretation of the term as a compound of "˜wampum' + "˜peag'; it is, in fact, a compound of wamp, wompi (“white") + umpe (“string") + -ag (plural suffix), in reference to the string of white shell-beads and not the individual beads.

    From Wiktionary

  • Short for wampumpeag

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

Wampum Sentence Examples

  • Wampum was employed most in New England, but it was common elsewhere.

  • Wampum was of two colours, dark purple and white, of cylindrical form, averaging a quarter of an inch in length, and about half that in diameter.

  • A strand of wampum, consisting of purple and white shell-beads or a belt woven with figures formed by beads of different colours, operated on the principle of associating a particular fact with a particular string or figure, thus giving a serial arrangement to the facts as well as fidelity to the memory.

  • The term wampum or wampum-peage was apparently applied to the beads only when strung or woven together.

  • Dark wampum, which was made from a "hard shell" clam (Venus mercenaria), popularly called quahang or quahog, a corruption of the Indian name, was the most valuable.

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Words Starting With

WWAWAM

Words Ending With

MUMPUM

Unscrambles

wampum

Words Starting With W and Ending With M

Starts With W & Ends With MStarts With WA & Ends With MStarts With W & Ends With UM

Word Length

6 Letter Words6 Letter Words Starting With W6 Letter Words Ending With M