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• Native American
  Native American

  noun

  Indian.
• native American
  native American

  noun

  a person born in the United States.

Native American

¹ American  

[ney-tiv uh-mer-i-kuhn] / ˈneɪ tɪv əˈmɛr ɪ kən /

noun

1. Indian.

2. a member of any of the aboriginal peoples of the Americas, including Indians and non-Indians.

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native American ² American  

noun

1. a person born in the United States.

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Native American British  

noun

1. A member of the indigenous peoples of North America

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adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of Native Americans or any of their languages

Sensitive Note

See Indian, Eskimo.

Other Word Forms

• native-American
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of native American

An Americanism dating back to 1835–45

Example Sentences

“No one I’ve ever known has done anything like that. You go to a Native-American pow wow and you don’t hear anything like this.”

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 17, 2021

They included the story of Rosa Parks, an image of Native-American leaders standing in front of Mount Rushmore and an atom bomb mushroom cloud.

From Fox News • Apr. 1, 2019

The boy, who is healthy, has been staying with family members who are part of the Native-American Apache tribe.

From BBC • Feb. 5, 2019

In New Mexico’s safely Democratic first congressional district, Deb Haaland saw off five challengers; in November she will probably become the first Native-American woman elected to Congress.

From Economist • Jun. 6, 2018

The Native-American Party was formed, in 1841, "to prevent the union of Church and State," and to "keep the Bible in the schools."

From The History of Education; educational practice and progress considered as a phase of the development and spread of western civilization by Cubberley, Ellwood Patterson