Indian

American  

[in-dee-uhn] / ˈɪn di ən /

noun

Indians plural

1. Also called American Indian, Amerind, Amerindian, Native American.  a member of any of the aboriginal peoples of the Americas, especially of subarctic North America, excluding the Inuit, Yupik, and Aleut.

2. any of the Indigenous languages of the American Indians. Ind

3. a member of any of the peoples native to or inhabiting India or the East Indies.

4. a citizen of the Republic of India.

5. Slang. a person who performs a required task or carries out the instructions of superiors.

   We have too many chiefs and not enough Indians.

6. Astronomy. the constellation Indus.

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adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of the American Indians or their languages.

2. of, relating to, or characteristic of India or the East Indies.

3. made of Indian corn.

   Indian meal.

4. Zoogeography. oriental.

5. Phytogeography. belonging or pertaining to a geographical division comprising India south of the Himalayas, and Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Indian British  

/ ˈɪndɪən /

noun

1. a native, citizen, or inhabitant of the Republic of India

2. old-fashioned a Native American

3. (not in scholarly usage) any of the languages of Native Americans

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adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of India, its inhabitants, or any of their languages

2. (Not in scholarly usage) of, relating to, or characteristic of Native Americans or any of their languages

Sensitive Note

Because Christopher Columbus mistakenly believed that the Caribbean island on which he had landed was the subcontinent of India, he called the inhabitants Indians. Eventually, that name was applied to almost all the Indigenous, non-European inhabitants of North and South America. In modern times Indian may refer to an inhabitant of the subcontinent of India or of the East Indies, to a citizen of the Republic of India, or to a member of an aboriginal American people. However, the term Indian is not applied to the Inuit, Yupik, and Aleut of Arctic North America. In the 18th century the term American Indian came to be used for the aboriginal inhabitants of the United States and Canada; it now includes the aboriginal peoples of South America as well. (When necessary, further distinctions are made with such terms as North American Indian and South American Indian. ) The terms Amerindian and Amerind subsequently developed in the attempt to reduce ambiguity. The most recent designation, especially in North America, is Native American. American Indians themselves tend to favor the terms Indian, American Indian, or a specific tribal name. They sometimes refer to themselves collectively as Indian peoples. All these terms appear in edited writing. Whether one or several will gain ascendancy over the others remains to be seen. See Eskimo. See also honest Injun, Indian giver.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• pre-Indian
  noun
• anti-Indian
  adjective
• non-Indian
  adjective
• pro-Indian
  adjective
• pseudo-Indian
  adjective
• trans-Indian
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• Indians
  plural

Etymology

Origin of Indian

First recorded in 1350–1400; from Medieval Latin Indiānus; replacing Middle English Indien, from Old French, from Medieval Latin as above; see India, -an

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Indian Indians

Vevek Tandoan, Karmarkar’s father-in-law, said the company sent the family condolences midweek, and that it was coordinating with the Omani navy and Indian Consulate in Dubai to return Karmarkar’s remains.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026

Indian activist and educationist Sonam Wangchuk, on hunger strike for the past 20 days in Delhi, has been forcibly removed from his protest site.

From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026

Their analysis of the supply chain suggests that Indian suppliers will be structurally capped at a 25% to 30% share of the global market for first-generation GLP-1s, facing delivery pen and fill/finish supply constraints.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026

Her final fraudulent application came in September 2020, when she applied for a £50,000 loan for Indian Canteen Ltd - a street food business incorporated in January of that year.

From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026

Increasingly, he seemed to think of his home state in the same vein as the Indian tribes in his letter to the Cherokees.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis

In response, Indian elites established institutions of their own, including the Calcutta Club in 1907, which admitted both Indians and Europeans and became a rare experiment in shared membership before independence.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026

“This is beyond huge,” said J. Carlos Rivera, tribal chairman of the Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2026

Government figures show Indians lost nearly $3 billion to cyber fraud in 2025, almost 40 times more than in 2021.

From Barron's ● Jul. 2, 2026

In a statement on Sunday, the Editors Guild of India said Rajagopal's case "highlights the misery that millions of Indians are being put through" because of the SIR exercise.

From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026

The other Indians fled as Washington and Gist “took this Fellow into Custody, and kept him till about 9 o’Clock at Night, and then let him go.”

From "George Washington, Spymaster" by Thomas B. Allen