sachem
Americannoun
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(among some North American Indians)
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the chief of a tribe.
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the chief of a confederation.
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a member of the governing body of the League of the Iroquois.
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one of the high officials in the Tammany Society.
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Slang. a political party leader.
noun
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a leader of a political party or organization, esp of Tammany Hall
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another name for sagamore
Other Word Forms
- sachemdom noun
- sachemic adjective
- sachemship noun
Etymology
Origin of sachem
First recorded in 1615–25, from southeastern New England Algonquian (compare Narragansett ( English spelling) sâchim, saunchum, Massachusett sontim ), from unattested Proto-Algonquian sa˙kima˙wa; sagamore
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.
Or Opeka, a Shawnee sachem who shrewdly negotiated with the governor of Pennsylvania in 1710 to spare the lives of his people accused of killing colonists?
From New York Times
In the 1600s, they lived in 69 villages, each with a chief, or sachem, and a medicine man.
From Seattle Times
The sachems of the European Handball Federation were scandalized.
From Washington Post
“They blatantly fooled the whole entire country about this land belonging to them,” said Larry Fisher, who has been working to revive the tribe since becoming its chief sachem in 2014, of the Mashpees.
From Seattle Times
This was unlike Buster, who usually remains pretty stoically silent, like an elderly indigenous sachem.
From Washington Post
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
