We calculate the nucleon strangeness ${y}_{N}$ in the chiral quark model and the meson cloud model. With the internal relation between the sigma term of $\ensuremath{\pi}N$ (${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\ensuremath{\pi}N}$) and ${y}_{N}$, we present the results of ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\ensuremath{\pi}N}$ in these two models. Our calculations show that ${y}_{N}$ from the chiral quark model is significantly larger than that from the meson cloud model, whereas the difference of ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\ensuremath{\pi}N}$ between the two models is relatively small. We also present the results of ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{KN}$ and ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\ensuremath{\eta}N}$, which could be determined by ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\ensuremath{\pi}N}$ and ${y}_{N}$ from their definition in the current algebra, and find that these two physical parameters are quite sensitive to ${y}_{N}$. The results indicate the necessity to restrict the parameters of the two models from more precision measurements.