Iowa
//ˈaɪəwə// name, noun
name, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 One of the Native Americans formerly occupying the region now included in the state of Iowa.
- 2 a dialect of the Chiwere language spoken by the Iowa wordnet
- 3 a member of the Siouan people formerly living in Iowa and Minnesota and Missouri wordnet
Proper Noun
- 1 A state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Capital and largest city: Des Moines.
"I prefer to think of Iowa as I saw it through the eyes of a ten-year-old boy. Those were eyes filled with the wonders of Iowa’s streams and woods, of the mystery of growing crops."
- 2 A tributary of the Mississippi River which flows through Iowa in a southeast direction.
- 3 A town in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana.
- 4 Ellipsis of University of Iowa. abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis
Example
More examples"The climate of Florida in the wintertime is milder than that of Iowa."
Etymology
From French Aiouez/Ayoés, an early transliteration of the name for the Iowa tribe, from Dakota ayúxba (“sleepy ones”).
Related phrases
More for "iowa"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.