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a family of languages spoken now or formerly by American Indians in an area extending from Labrador westward to the Rocky Mountains, west-southwestward through Michigan and Illinois, and southwestward along the Atlantic coast to Cape Hatteras, including especially Arapaho, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Cree, Fox, Massachusett, Micmac, Ojibwa, and Powhatan.
Compare (def 14).
a member of an Algonquian-speaking tribe.
of or relating to Algonquian or its speakers.
Historical Examples

The three linguistic families to be considered are the Algonquian, Siouan, and Caddoan.
Villages of the Algonquian, Siouan, and Caddoan Tribes West of the Mississippi David Ives Bushnell

Manito is the Algonquian name for “the mysterious and unknown potencies and powers of life and of the universe.”
Man, Past and Present Agustus Henry Keane

In 1643 came to Canada and spent a year in study of Algonquian language.
The Makers of Canada: Index and Dictionary of Canadian History Various

This is incorrect, the Shoshonean differing widely from the Algonquian language stock.
Early Western Travels 1748-1846, Volume 28 Various

They were organised in many exogamous clans; descent was patrilineal although it was matrilineal in most Algonquian tribes.
Man, Past and Present Agustus Henry Keane

Its derivation has been attributed to an Algonquian term signifying “swamp” or “open marshy land.”
Revolutionary Reader Sophie Lee Foster

The hostility of the Algonquian tribes seems to have been the cause of the southward migration of the Iroquoian peoples.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 14, Slice 7 Various

This is illustrated further by the Musquakies, also belonging to the Algonquian stock.
The Truth About Woman C. Gasquoine Hartley

The Algonquian believed in a great serpent in the Great Lakes which raised storms, and destroyed canoes.
Early Western Travels, 1748-1846, v. 23 Various

It was bounded on the northwest, north, northeast, and for some distance on the east by Algonquian territory.
Indian Linguistic Families Of America, North Of Mexico John Wesley Powell

noun
a family of North American Indian languages whose speakers ranged over an area stretching from the Atlantic between Newfoundland and Delaware to the Rocky Mountains, including Micmac, Mahican, Ojibwa, Fox, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, and Shawnee. Some linguists relate it to Muskogean in a Macro-Algonquian phylum
(pl) -ans, -an. a member of any of the North American Indian peoples that speak one of these languages
adjective
denoting, belonging to, or relating to this linguistic family or its speakers

1885, an ethnologist’s word, modified from Algonquin + -ian. Both forms of the name have been used as adjectives and nouns.