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How to use the Ojibwe People's Dictionary

gagwaadagizi vai s/he has a hard time, suffers harship

gagwaanisagad vii it is terrible

Paired with: gagwaanisagizi vai

gagwaanisagakamig adv man terrible, awful, horrible, disgusting

gagwaanisagendam vai2 s/he thinks things terrible, horrible, disgusting; s/he is horrified

gagwaanisagendan vti think it terrible, think it disgusting

Paired with: gagwaanisagenim vta

gagwaanisagendaagozi vai s/he is thought terrible, is thought disgusting

Paired with: gagwaanisagendaagwad vii

gagwaanisagendaagwad vii it is thought terrible, is thought disgusting

Paired with: gagwaanisagendaagozi vai

gagwaanisagenim vta think h/ terrible, think h/ disgusting

Paired with: gagwaanisagendan vti

gagwaanisagi' vta do something terrible to h/

(reciprocal) gagwaanisagi'idiwag vai they do something terrible to each other
gagwaanisagi'idiwag vai they do something terrible to each other

gagwaanisagimaagozi vai s/he smells terrible

Paired with: gagwaanisagimaagwad vii

gagwaanisagimaagwad vii it smells terrible

Paired with: gagwaanisagimaagozi vai

gagwaanisagimaam vta find s/he smells terrible

Paired with: gagwaanisagimaandan vti

gagwaanisagimaandan vti find it smells terrible

Paired with: gagwaanisagimaam vta

gagwaanisagimaasige vai s/he spreads a terrible smell by cooking or burning something

gagwaanisagimaaso vai s/he smells terrible cooking or burning

Paired with: gagwaanisagimaate vii

gagwaanisagimaate vii it smells terrible cooking or burning

Paired with: gagwaanisagimaaso vai

gagwaanisaginaagozi vai s/he looks terrible

Paired with: gagwaanisaginaagwad vii

gagwaanisaginaagwad vii it looks terrible

Paired with: gagwaanisaginaagozi vai

gagwaanisaginigozi vai s/he is terribly heavy

gagwaanisaginigwad vii it is extremely heavy

gagwaanisagipogozi vai s/he tastes terrible

Paired with: gagwaanisagipogwad vii

gagwaanisagipogwad vii it tastes terrible

Paired with: gagwaanisagipogozi vai

gagwaanisagitaagozi vai s/he sounds terrible

Paired with: gagwaanisagitaagwad vii

gagwaanisagitaagwad vii it sounds terrible

Paired with: gagwaanisagitaagozi vai

The Ojibwe People's Dictionary is developed and maintained by:
Nora Livesay, Editor
John D. Nichols, Founder and Linguistic Editor

with support and collaboration from the University of Minnesota's Department of American Indian Studies and University Libraries.

Additional Resources

Many of the words in the Ojibwe People's Dictionary have related resources. Click through to the full dictionary entry to hear audio recordings, see images, read documents and watch videos. Here's a key to resource icons.

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Speakers & Regions Key

Individual speakers and speakers from different regions use different words when speaking. Each audio recording is marked with the initials of the Ojibwe speaker. Click on a speaker's initials to go to the speaker's bio page. If an Ojibwe word is particular to a certain region, it will be marked with a region code. Click on the region code to go to the Regions page.