umiak means A large, open boat made of skins stretched over a wooden frame that is propelled by paddles; used by the Eskimos for transportation. It carries an Arena rating of 1320, earned across 101 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, umiak ranks #1,488 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words, #1,671 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #2,031 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #2,729 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words.
Why “umiak” is a great word
UMIAK — [Noun] A large, open boat made of a wooden frame covered with hide, traditionally used by Inuit and Yupik peoples for transportation and hunting. From Inuvialuktun and Greenlandic Inuit umiaq, meaning “women’s boat”; first attested in English c. 1743. Unlike a kayak—a sealed, solitary craft for the hunter—or a dinghy—a modern, mass-produced utility vessel—the umiak is a communal ark of skin and sinew. It is the creak of walrus-hide stretched taut over driftwood, the synchronized dip of women’s paddles in a lead-grey sea, and the silhouette of a family and all its possessions moving slowly across the roof of the world. A vessel of survival whose very name remembers who built it, who steered it, and who kept its fragile order afloat.
Etymology
From Inuvialuktun ᐅᒥᐊᖅ (umiaq, “women's boat”).
noun
- A large, open boat made of skins stretched over a wooden frame that is propelled by paddles; used by the Eskimos for transportation.e.g.“In many regions, people went inland at the end of August (often travelling upriver in large sealskin boats called umiat) to hunt caribou till September or October.” — 2002, Louis-Jacques Dorais, 'Inuit', Aboriginal Peoples of Canada, ed. Paul Robert Magocsi, University of Toronto, page 135
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- qamutik 57% match — An Inuit sled for travelling on snow and ice. vs umiak →
- tupik 56% match — A tent or other building made from animal skins, used by the Inuit during the summer. vs umiak →
- bullboat 55% match — A shallow, small, round skin-covered boat used by the American Indians. vs umiak →
- iceboat 55% match — An ice yacht. vs umiak →
- qilaut 54% match — A type of frame drum used mostly by the Inuit. vs umiak →
- kakap 54% match — A narrow river or coastal boat used in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei for fishing, or sometimes in piracy and raids. vs umiak →
- akja 54% match — larger pulk (low-slung boatlike sled, used for man-hauling supplies across snow and ice) vs umiak →
- bidarka 54% match — A kayak constructed by covering a light wooden frame (lashed together with sinew) in sea lion hides. vs umiak →