Seneca

UK: /ˈsɛnɪkə/ US: (sen′i kə)

Inflections of 'Seneca' (n):

Senecas

npl (For people)

Seneca

npl (Can be used as a collective plural for people—e.g. "Seneca have lived on this land for hundreds of years.")

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026

Sen•e•ca  (sen′i kə), n., pl. -cas, (esp. collectively) -ca for 1.

1. a member of the largest tribe of the Iroquois Confederacy of North American Indians, formerly inhabiting western New York and being conspicuous in the wars south and west of Lake Erie.
2. an Iroquoian language of the Seneca, Onondaga, and Cayuga tribes.

• an unattested Mahican name
• New York Dutch Sennecaas, etc., origin, originally applied to the Oneida and, more generally, to all the Upper Iroquois (as opposed to the Mohawk), probably

Sen′e•can, adj. 

Sen•e•ca  (sen′i kə), n. 

Lucius An•nae•us  (ə nē′əs), c4b.c. –a.d.65, Roman philosopher and writer of tragedies.

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

Seneca / ˈsɛnɪkə/ noun

1. Lucius Annaeus ( ˈluːsɪəs əˈniːəs ), called the Younger. ?4 bc–65 ad, Roman philosopher, statesman, and dramatist; tutor and adviser to Nero. He was implicated in a plot to murder Nero and died by suicide. His works include Stoical essays on ethical subjects and tragedies that had a considerable influence on Elizabethan drama
2. his father, Marcus ( ˈmɑːkəs ) or Lucius Annaeus, called the Elder or the Rhetorician. ?55 bc–?39 ad, Roman writer on oratory and history