Milwaukee

English

Etymology

Perhaps from Ojibwe ominowakiing (“gathering place (by the water)”), or an Algonquin word meaning “the good land”.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /mɪlˈwɔː.kiː/
• (US, without the cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /mɪlˈwɔk.i/
• (Milwaukee, Northern cities shift) IPA^(key): /məˈwɔk.i/ [məˈwɒki ~ məˈwɑki]
• (Milwaukee, cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /məˈwɑ.ki/ [məˈwɑki]

  • Audio (Milwaukee); [məˈwɑki]:

    (file)

• (General American, cot–caught merger, dialects of Canada) IPA^(key): /mɪlˈwɑ.ki/
• (Canada, dialects of the US) IPA^(key): /mɪlˈwɒk.i/

Proper noun

Milwaukee

1. A number of places in the United States.
   2. The largest city in Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County.
      • 2019 October 13, “Toronto slang on the rise thanks to city's growing pop culture relevance”, in CBC News‎^[1], archived from the original on 6 July 2022:

        During the Toronto Raptors' championship run, a fan-made sign referred to the opposing Milwaukee Bucks as the "Milwaukee Bucktees," bucktee being an insult deriving from a similar word in Somali.

      • 2020 August 18, James Poniewozik, “A D.N.C. Opening Night for the New Abnormal”, in The New York Times‎^[2], archived from the original on 21 August 2020:

        There was no location, really — most of the convention took place in a Milwaukee of the mind. […] Instead, the teleconvention kept a few standards (like the Bruce Springsteen–soundtracked montage) and borrowed from a grab bag of other TV formats, from talk show to cable news to reality-TV reunion special.

      • 2022 October 26, Christina Zdanowicz, Claudia Dominguez, Lauren M. Johnson and Sara Smart, “The Waukesha victims included an 8-year-old boy, a loving grandmother and a woman excited to make her debut in the Dancing Grannies”, in CNN‎^[3], archived from the original on 3 July 2025:

        A GoFundMe page was created by the family and talked about how Sorenson spent her last moments celebrating the beauty of life and how she had a true passion for the Milwaukee Dancing Grannies.

   3. An unincorporated community and census-designated place in Northampton County, North Carolina.
   4. An unincorporated community in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania.

Alternative forms

• Milwaukie (archaic)

Derived terms

• Mil
• Milwaukeean
• Milwaukee brace
• Milwaukee County
• Milwaukee goiter
• Milwaukee protocol
• Milwaukee Road
• Milwaukee shoulder syndrome
• Milwaukie