Definition of Cree

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Cree    (kr) KEY 

NOUN:
pl. Cree or Crees

1. 1. A Native American people inhabiting a large area from eastern Canada west to Alberta and the Great Slave Lake. Formerly located in central Canada, the Cree expanded westward and eastward in the 17th and 18th centuries, the western Cree adopting the Plains Indian life and the eastern Cree retaining their woodland culture.
   2. A member of this people.
2. The Algonquian language of the Cree.

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ETYMOLOGY:
French Cris, shortening of Cristineaux, name of a 17th-century Cree band, from Ojibwa (Old Algonquin) kiritino·, from Cree