Inca
Americannoun
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Incas
plural
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a member of any of the dominant groups of South American Indian peoples who established an empire in Peru prior to the Spanish conquest.
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a ruler or member of the royal family in the Incan empire.
noun
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a member of a South American Indian people whose great empire centred on Peru lasted from about 1100 ad to the Spanish conquest in the early 1530s and is famed for its complex culture
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the ruler or king of this empire or any member of his family
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the language of the Incas See also Quechua
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of Inca
1585–95; < Spanish < Quechua inka ruler of the Inca state
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:
The Inca civilization, based high in the Andes, built the largest Indigenous empire in the Americas before European arrival.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 7, 2026
“Crypto use in Venezuela will persist and likely expand in the short term,” said Adam Zarazinski, chief executive officer of the crypto-intelligence firm Inca Digital.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 10, 2026
The two trains involved were operated by PeruRail and Inca Rail respectively.
From BBC ● Dec. 31, 2025
Fifteen people were injured when two trains crashed head-on Tuesday near the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, Peru's top tourist attraction, police and train operators said.
From Barron's ● Dec. 30, 2025
Pizarro had similarly grim luck when he landed on the coast of Peru in 1531 with 168 men to conquer the Inca Empire of millions.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
"Guano was a highly sought-after resource the Incas would have wanted access to, playing an important role in the diplomatic arrangements between the Inca and the Chincha communities," Dr. Bongers said.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 7, 2026
Whereas for the Incas the route was a way to impose order, for the Spanish it became a means of extracting resources—another common reason that geographic links are forged.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2025
“There’s a mystical weirdness about the place that is so cool,” Glasnow said of the ancient stone-walled structures of the Lost City of the Incas.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 27, 2024
From there the Princess will head to Qoricancha, or “The Golden Temple” in Quechua language, considered the most important - and most sacred - temple by the Incas.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 3, 2023
Within half a dozen years of the initial conquest, Incas mounted two desperate, large-scale, well-prepared rebellions against the Spaniards.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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