Ainu
Americannoun
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Ainus,
plural
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Ainu
plural
-
a member of an aboriginal population of northernmost Japan.
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the language of the Ainu.
noun
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a member of the aboriginal people of Japan, now mostly intermixed with Mongoloid immigrants whose skin colour is more yellowish
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the language of this people, sometimes tentatively associated with Altaic, still spoken in parts of Hokkaido and elsewhere
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of Ainu
Ainu: man
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In 2001, Japanese senator Kayano Shigeru – the first of Ainu origin to be elected – visited the Munro clan in Scotland and issued a posthumous thanks for Dr Munro's support of the Ainu people.
From BBC ● Apr. 30, 2025
Dr Munro lived and died among the Ainu while studying their culture in northern Japan.
From BBC ● Apr. 30, 2025
For example, Hitoshi Watanabe focused on ethnographic data about the Ainu, an Indigenous population in northern Japan and its surrounding areas.
From Scientific American ● Oct. 17, 2023
Although Watanabe documented Ainu women hunting, often with the aid of dogs, he dismissed this finding in his interpretations and placed the focus squarely on men as the primary meat winners.
From Scientific American ● Oct. 17, 2023
By the time of the Kofun period, all Japanese skeletons except those of the Ainu formed a homogeneous group, resembling modern Japanese and Koreans.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
The Hairy Ainus of Japan catch salmon with grizzly bears.
From Time Magazine Archive
His evidence is that the Ainus, unlike any other tribes in northern Asia: > Wear loincloths in summer.
From Time Magazine Archive
Some strayed out on the bleak mainland, looking for shelter in the huts of the aboriginal Ainus.
From Time Magazine Archive
From far-off Hokkaido, lured by an enterprising Tokyo promoter, a tribe of Japan's aboriginal Ainus came to stage the first touring performance of their ancient bear festival.
From Time Magazine Archive
The word "Shogun" merely means "General"; the full title of the people whom we call "Shogun" is "Sei-i-Tai Shogun," which means "Barbarian-subduing great General"; the barbarians in question being the Ainus, the Japanese aborigines.
From The Problem of China by Bertrand Russell
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
