Navajo

American  

[nav-uh-hoh, nah-vuh-] / ˈnæv əˌhoʊ, ˈnɑ və- /

Or Navaho

noun

• Navajos,
  plural
• Navajoes,
  plural
• Navajo
  plural

1. Also called Diné.  a member of the most populous nation of the southern division of Athabascan Native Americans, located in New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah, and now constituting the largest tribal group in the United States.

2. the Athabascan language of the Navajo.

---

adjective

1. Also of, relating to, or characteristic of the Navajo, their language, or their culture.

   a Navajo blanket.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• Navajo
  plural
• Navajoes
  plural
• Navajos
  plural

Etymology

Origin of Navajo

First recorded in 1800–10; from American Spanish Apaches de Nabajú “Apaches of Nabajú” (Navajo and several Apachean languages are mutually intelligible), originally a place name applied to the Largo Canyon region of the Four Corners area of northwest New Mexico, from Tewa navahu “large arroyo with cultivated fields”; see also Diné ( def. )

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Navajo Navajoes Navajos

“In the beginning there was nothing but Spider Woman,” say Navajo and Pueblo elders.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026

The two came up with a bold redesign — bright colors to attract motorists and greetings in four languages to honor the surrounding Navajo, Zuni, Acoma and Laguna communities.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 12, 2026

Last year, the Navajo Nation president said his office had received reports of tribal citizens in Arizona and New Mexico getting caught up in the crackdown on undocumented immigrants.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 15, 2026

Once enough information was gathered, the team cross-referenced all of their intelligence, looking for inconsistencies and flags, and provided their findings to the Navajo County district attorney’s office, Clouse said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 29, 2025

Those mounted plains warriors and Navajo sheepherders and weavers now figure prominently in white Americans’ image of American Indians, but the basis for that image was created only after 1492.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

As soon as the proposal was made, the Navajoes rose from their seats, and clustered together in a corner of the room to deliberate.

From The Scalp Hunters by F.A. Stewart

As soon as this was announced to the Navajoes, twenty men—already chosen, no doubt—stepped out into the open prairie, and striking their lances into the ground, rested against them their bows, quivers, and shields.

From The Scalp Hunters by F.A. Stewart

Some carried, instead of the pictured serape, the blanket of the Navajoes, with its broad black stripes.

From The Scalp Hunters by F.A. Stewart

It does not look like a war-shaft; but the Navajoes use a very subtle poison.

From The Scalp Hunters by F.A. Stewart

We were nearing the great town of the Navajoes.

From The Scalp Hunters by F.A. Stewart

The tribal official urged Navajos to carry state-issued identification or their “Certificate of Indian blood.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 15, 2026

According to their creation story, Navajos were born out of the same earth and stone.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 7, 2024

Leger Fernández acknowledged that balancing competing interests such as cultural preservation and the poverty faced by Navajos make for difficult choices.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 13, 2023

“The Navajos do not contend that the United States has interfered with their access to water,” he wrote.

From New York Times ● Jun. 22, 2023

“That’s right,” Betonie said, “when I am gone off on the train, a hundred miles from here, those Navajos won’t come near this hogan.”

From "Ceremony:" by Leslie Marmon Silko