A wigwam is a kind of house that some Native American peoples built and lived in, mostly in the woodland areas of the northeast of North America. It is made by bending young trees into a round frame and covering the frame with bark, mats made of grass, or animal skins. The roof is round like a dome, or sometimes comes to a point at the top. Inside there is one open room, with a fire in the middle and a hole in the roof for the smoke. In English books and school lessons, the word is almost always used about the past: "the people lived in wigwams." It is not a word for a house someone is building today. You will meet it in history books, in children's stories about Native Americans, and sometimes as the name of a shop or a camp. There is one thing worth knowing. Many English speakers use "wigwam" loosely for any Native American home, including the tall cone-shaped tent with long poles. That tent is really a tipi, and it belongs to different peoples, the ones who lived on the open grassland and moved often. A wigwam was heavier and stayed in one place; a tipi could be taken down and carried. Careful writers keep them apart, but everyday speech often does not. In British English you may also hear "wigwam" used playfully for a small play tent for children.

圓頂棚屋、維格瓦姆（北美原住民的傳統住屋）