Chinook

//ʃɪˈnʊk// name, noun

name, noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The descending, warm, dry wind on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains that generally blows from the southwest and can rapidly increase the temperature due to the much warmer air it brings. Canada, US
  2. 2
    A member of a Native American people whose traditional tribal grounds were along the lower and middle Columbia River.

    "The Chinook sent a hunting party to the south."

  3. 3
    large Pacific salmon valued as food; adults die after spawning wordnet
  4. 4
    The chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha).
  5. 5
    Alternative letter-case form of chinook alt-of
Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    a Penutian language spoken by the Chinook wordnet
  2. 7
    pink or white flesh of large Pacific salmon wordnet
  3. 8
    a member of an important North American Indian people who controlled the mouth of the Columbia river; they were organized into settlements rather than tribes wordnet
  4. 9
    a warm dry wind blowing down the eastern slopes of the Rockies wordnet
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A Native American language of the Penutian family of Oregon and Washington.
  2. 2
    Chinook Jargon, a pidgin trade language of the Pacific Northwest composed primarily of words from Chinook proper, English, and French, with some borrowings from other languages.

    "The Missionary's address rolled on in choppy Chinook, undertoned by a gentle voice from the back of the room which told Tanook in pure Indian words what he was to do."

  3. 3
    A city, the county seat of Blaine County, Montana, United States.
  4. 4
    The Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter.

Synonyms

All synonyms
chinook languagechinook salmonchinook salmonchinook windchinookanchinookan

Example

More examples

"In 1992, Marion Tinsley (1927-1995), the seemingly unbeatable World Checker Champion, defended his title against the computer program CHINOOK, in a series of games, of which he won 4, lost 2, and drew 33. This was the first time ever that a human world champion defended his title against a computer."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Lower Chehalis c̓inúk (“the name of a Chinook village on the Columbia River”).

Etymology 2

From Lower Chehalis c̓inúk (the name of a Chinook village on the Columbia river).

Related phrases

Columbia ChinookLower ChinookUpper Chinookblaine countychinook jargonchinook salmoncounty seatnative americanoncorhynchus tshawytscharocky mountains

More for "chinook"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.