Adivasi

British

/ ˈɑːdɪˌvɑːsɪ /

noun

a member of any of the aboriginal peoples of India

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of Adivasi

Sanskrit, from adi beginning + vasi dweller

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Tulsi Adivasi showed BBC Hindi a government notice which evaluated his house at 46,000 rupees.

From BBC • Feb. 23, 2025

The Indian government’s tribal affairs ministry has repeatedly said it is working on Adivasi rights.

From Seattle Times • Apr. 8, 2023

These Adivasi communities lived by shifting cultivation of millets and other subsistence crops, as well as rice cultivation, in forested mountains of eastern India.

From Scientific American • Jan. 5, 2023

There, he set up the Adivasi Academy, which has a multilingual school, a health center and a library of over 60,000 books, including a section devoted to tribal archives.

From New York Times • Jun. 11, 2022

Despite that, he said, the number of Dalit and Adivasi priests, nuns and bishops is disproportionately low.

From Washington Post • May 16, 2022

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023