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• Aborigines
  Aborigines

  plural noun

  the plural form of Aborigine.
• aborigines
  aborigines

  The earliest known inhabitants of a region. The term is most often associated with the native hunting and gathering population of Australia, who preceded the arrival of white settlers. (See hunting and gathering societies.)

Aborigines

American  

[ab-uh-rij-uh-neez] / ˌæb əˈrɪdʒ ə niz /

plural noun

1. the plural form of Aborigine.

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aborigines Cultural  

1. The earliest known inhabitants of a region. The term is most often associated with the native hunting and gathering population of Australia, who preceded the arrival of white settlers. (See hunting and gathering societies.)

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Etymology

Origin of Aborigines

First recorded in 1540–50; Aborigine ( def. ) + -s ³ ( def. ); Aborigine ( def. )

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Aborigines aborigines

Wartilykirri is a hooked boomerang shaped like the number seven, used by Aborigines in southeastern Australia.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2024

When the Australian Aborigines arrived on the continent of Australia, they started changing the ecosystem in very dramatic ways, and a lot of species went extinct.

From Salon ● Aug. 5, 2023

For days, he’d hitchhiked across the country in 100-degree heat, bound for Uluru/Ayers Rock, a red sandstone mountain sacred to Australia’s Aborigines.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 10, 2021

On May 27, 1967, 91 percent of Australian voters agreed by referendum to delete two discriminatory references to Aborigines in Australia’s Constitution.

From New York Times ● Nov. 15, 2017

How else can one explain why the Aborigines of northeastern Australia failed to adopt bows and arrows, which they saw being used by Torres Straits islanders with whom they traded?

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

Now the Japanese, the Chinese, the Mongolian, the Turks, the Indians, the Afghans, the Persians, the Arabs, the Malayans, the American aborigines, and the African peoples are all non-white.

From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022

The new one is intended to go quite a bit further than that of 1967, in some way acknowledging aborigines as the first Australians.

From Economist ● Jul. 6, 2017

Before the Dutch arrived, Taiwan’s aborigines, Austronesian peoples related to indigenous groups as far away as Polynesia and Madagascar, had lived basically undisturbed since as early as 10,000 B.C.

From Slate ● May 8, 2017

But once this great migration was finished, the new study suggests, the ancestors of today’s aborigines hunkered down in their new homes — for tens of thousands of years.

From New York Times ● Mar. 8, 2017

Taiwan’s aborigines had the island largely to themselves until mainland Chinese began settling in large numbers within the last thousand years.

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