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Pawnee

American  
[paw-nee] / pɔˈni /

noun

plural

Pawnees,

plural

Pawnee
  1. a member of a confederacy of North American Plains Indians of Caddoan stock formerly located along the Platte River valley, Nebraska, and now living in northern Oklahoma.

  2. the Caddoan language of the Pawnee Indians.


Pawnee British  
/ pɔːˈniː /

noun

  1. a member of a confederacy of related North American Indian peoples, formerly living in Nebraska and Kansas, now chiefly in Oklahoma

  2. the language of these peoples, belonging to the Caddoan family

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Chief Hotate often met Leslie Knope, deputy director of the Parks and Recreation department for the fictional city of Pawnee, to discuss use of the land.

From BBC • Jun. 3, 2025

Jerry was often the butt of jokes at the show’s fictional Pawnee, Ind., government office, but was also happily married with kids and a wife who looked like a supermodel.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 19, 2024

In one of my all-time favorite Parks and Recreation episodes, Leslie Knope excitedly tells the camera that the city of Pawnee will finally get fluoride in their water thanks to a merger with neighboring Eagleton.

From Slate • Sep. 29, 2024

“A story by itself makes it easy for somebody to say this was just one person’s experience,” said Ms. Echo-Hawk, who lives outside Seattle and is a citizen of the Pawnee Nation.

From New York Times • Dec. 12, 2023

Joe gave the same alibi Rose did: on the night of May 21, 1921, they had been together in Pawnee, seventeen miles southwest of Gray Horse, and had stopped at a rooming house.

From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann