/shaw nee"/ , n. , pl. Shawnees , ( esp. collectively ) Shawnee .
1. a member of an Algonquian-speaking tribe formerly in the east-central U.S., now in Oklahoma.
2. the Algonquian language of the Shawnee tribe.
3. a town in E Kansas. 29,653.
4. a city in central Oklahoma. 26,506.
[ 1720-30, Amer.; back formation from earlier Shawnese, Shawanese (construed as pl.), reshaping (with -ESE) of earlier Shawanoes (pl.) šá·wano·w (sing.) ša·wano·ki Shawnees, lit., people of the south ]