# squaw

> English word · Noun · IPA /skwɔː/ · frequency rank #42,917

## Definitions
1. A woman, wife; especially a Native American woman.

## Etymology
From Massachusett squàw (“woman”), from Proto-Algonquian *eθkwe·wa (“(young) woman”). Cognate with Abenaki -skwa (“female, wife”), Mohegan-Pequot sqá, Cree iskwew / ᐃᐢᑫᐧᐤ (iskeyw, “woman”), Ojibwe ikwe (“woman”). In the 1970s, some non-linguists began to claim that the word originally meant vagina; this has been discredited.
The first English attestation of the word is found in a book called Mourt’s Relation: A Journey of the Pilgrims at Plymouth written in 1622, where the "squa sachim or Massachusets Queen" is mentioned in a journal entry from September 20, 1621.

## Easily confused with
- **straw** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/squaw-vs-straw)
- **squid** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/squaw-vs-squid)
- **squeak** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/squaw-vs-squeak)
- **squeal** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/squaw-vs-squeal)
- **saw** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/saw-vs-squaw)
- **shaw** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shaw-vs-squaw)
- **slaw** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slaw-vs-squaw)
- **squad** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/squad-vs-squaw)
- **squat** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/squat-vs-squaw)
- **square** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/square-vs-squaw)
- **squash** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/squash-vs-squaw)
- **squall** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/squall-vs-squaw)

## Common misspellings (7)
`qsuaw`, `sqauw`, `sqquaw`, `squaww`, `squwa`, `ssquaw`, `suqaw`

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