a member of an American Indian people who formerly inhabited the southern California coast from San Luis Obispo to Santa Monica Bay, as well as the Santa Barbara Islands and the interior westward to the San Joaquin Valley: noted for their sophisticated seacraft and rock paintings.
any of the Hokan languages of the Chumash, at least six in number, all now extinct.
literally: a fifth (part of the Torah)
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Most Chumash baskets have some kind of pattern, although today people have to guess at the meaning of the symbols, Timbrook said.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 8, 2026
Tongva, Chumash and Cahuilla workers in California formed the backbone of rancho agriculture.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 30, 2025
“Unlike Western belief systems, the Chumash held that humans could, with great effort, traverse these realms.”
From MarketWatch • Oct. 31, 2025
The six-bedroom home is described in its listing as an “architectural reverie” that draws “respectful inspiration from the Chumash people,” a Native American tribe that once occupied the land.
From MarketWatch • Oct. 31, 2025
You play with "Chumash" boys, warriors with long legs!
From Jewish Children by Berman, Hannah
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
