Uyghur

American  

[wee-goor] / ˈwi gʊər /

(Older Spelling) Uighur,

noun

Uyghurs, plural Uyghur plural

1. a member of a predominantly Muslim Turkic-speaking people, dominant in Mongolia and eastern Turkestan from the 8th to 12th centuries a.d., and now living in northwestern China, mainly in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

2. the Turkic language of the Uyghurs.

---

adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of the Uyghurs or their language.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• Uyghurian
  adjective
• Uyghuric
  adjective

Inflected Forms

noun

• Uyghur
  plural
• Uyghurs
  plural

Etymology

Origin of Uyghur

First recorded in 1840–45; from Uyghur; a self-designation of the Uyghur people

Example Sentences

A federal immigration judge on Wednesday granted U.S. asylum to a Chinese citizen who fled his homeland after gathering evidence of alleged human-rights violations against China’s Uyghur population.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 29, 2026

An unverified video posted on Instagram showed around 30 people gathered on Thursday in an area of the Almaty region that has a large Uyghur population.

From Barron's • Nov. 14, 2025

Beijing has been accused for years of repressing the Muslim Uyghur minority in the province, which borders Kazakhstan.

From Barron's • Nov. 14, 2025

She and her friends were wearing hijabs and, she says, Uyghur food vendors had approached them saying they were "envious we could freely wear our hijabs... but we didn't get to have very deep conversations".

From BBC • Nov. 1, 2025

Singaporean Thenmoli Silvadorie, who visited with friends in May for 10 days, says: "I was very curious about Uyghur culture and wanted to see how different things may be there. But we were quite disappointed."

From BBC • Nov. 1, 2025