Cherokee Definition

chĕrə-kē, chĕrə-kē

cherokees

noun

A member of a North American Indian people formerly inhabiting a large area of the S Appalachian Mountains, now living in Oklahoma and North Carolina.

Webster's New World

The Iroquoian language of this people.

Webster's New World

pronoun

An indigenous North American people.

Wiktionary

Their Iroquoian language, still spoken in Oklahoma and North Carolina.

Wiktionary

Other Word Forms of Cherokee

Noun

Singular:

Cherokee

Plural:

cherokees

Origin of Cherokee

Most likely from the Cherokee autonym ᏣᎳᎩ (tsalagi). Derivation from a Choctaw exonym meaning "those who live in caves" (compare chiluk (“cave”)) has also been suggested — the Iroquois term for the Cherokee was Oyata'ge'ronon (“inhabitants of the cave country”) — as has derivation from a Creek term for "person(s) who speak(s) a non-Creek language" (see celokketv (“to speak a non-creek language”)).

From Wiktionary
Whatever its origin, the ethnonym entered European languages at an early date, perhaps as early as the 1670s; in Spanish, the people are called the Tchalaquei as early as 1755.

From Wiktionary
From Cherokee tsalaki

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition