# Lake Wobegon

> English word · Proper noun

## Definitions
1. A fictional place in the radio show A Prairie Home Companion, “where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average”. Serves as a proxy for the American small town, particularly the American small town of the Upper Midwest.

## Etymology
Coined by American radio personality Garrison Keillor in 1976, from lake + woebegone, but explained as derived from an Ojibwe word with the meaning "the place where we waited all day in the rain [for you].".

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/lake-wobegon