[al-gong-kin, -kwin] 
noun, plural -quins, (especially collectively
) -quin for 1, 3, adjective | 1. | a member of a group of North American Indian tribes formerly along the Ottawa River and the northern tributaries of the St. Lawrence. |
| 2. | their speech, a dialect of Ojibwa, of the Algonquian family of languages. |
| 3. | Algonquian. |
| 4. | Algonquian. |
[al-gong-kee-uhn, -kwee-uhn] noun, plural -ans, (especially collectively) -an for 2, adjective | 1. | a family of languages spoken now or formerly by American Indians in an area extending from Labrador westward to the Rocky Mountains, west-southwestward through Michigan and Illinois, and southwestward along the Atlantic coast to Cape Hatteras, including esp. Arapaho, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Cree, Fox, Massachusett, Micmac, Ojibwa, and Powhatan. Compare family (def. 14). |
| 2. | a member of an Algonquian-speaking tribe. |
| 3. | of or pertaining to Algonquian or its speakers. |
| Al·gon·quin (āl-gŏng'kwĭn, -kĭn) n. pl. Algonquin or Algon·quins also Algonkin or Al·gon·kins
[Canadian French, from Malecite elakómkwik, they are our relatives.] |
Algonquin
North American Indian tribe of closely related Algonquian-speaking bands originally living in the dense forest regions of the valley of the Ottawa River and its tributaries in present-day Quebec and Ontario, Can. The tribe should be differentiated from the Algonquian language family, as the latter term refers to a much larger entity composed of at least 24 tribes of Northeast Indians and Plains Indians
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