Illustration of umiak
plural umiaks
: an open boat made of a wooden frame covered with hide used especially by Indigenous peoples of arctic Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and eastern Siberia
Examples of umiak in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Instead, guardsmen showed up in umiaks with small outboard motors.
—
Zachariah Hughes, Anchorage Daily News, 30 Mar. 2023
The kayak might be fun to us, but for Inuit it, and the big open umiak hunting boat, meant food or hunger, life or death.
—John Oseid, Forbes, 11 Oct. 2022
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Zachariah Hughes, Anchorage Daily News, 30 Mar. 2023
The kayak might be fun to us, but for Inuit it, and the big open umiak hunting boat, meant food or hunger, life or death.
—John Oseid, Forbes, 11 Oct. 2022
Cite this Entry
“Umiak.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/umiak. Accessed 7 Nov. 2025.
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umiak
noun
umi·ak
ˈü-mē-ˌak 
: a small open boat used especially by Indigenous peoples of arctic Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and eastern Siberia.
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