ayllu
Americannoun
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ayllus
plural
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among the Incas, a kin-based group forming the basic social unit.
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among present-day Indigenous Andean peoples, a community of families sharing land and organized under shared leadership, in some cases recognized as a political or administrative unit.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Example Sentences
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The ayllu, or extended family group, undertook tasks too big for a single family.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2012
The ayllu also stored food and other supplies to distribute among members during hard times.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2012
The Inca incorporated the ayllu structure into a governing system based on the decimal system.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2012
It was a patriarchal system, land belonging to the ayllu, which was a group of families.
From Man, Past and Present by Alfred Court Haddon
This party or lineage was called ayllu If there was no second son, or if there was one who was incapable, the duty was to be passed on to the nearest and ablest relation.
From History of the Incas by Sir Clements R. (Clements Robert) Markham
The Alcabisas and Culunchimas assembled their forces and Mayta Ccapac marshalled his ayllus.
From History of the Incas by Sir Clements R. (Clements Robert) Markham
When Ccapac Yupanqui died, Inca Rocca, his son by his wife Ccuri-hilpay, succeeded by nomination of his father and the guardian ayllus.
From History of the Incas by Sir Clements R. (Clements Robert) Markham
He added nothing to what his father had subjugated, only holding by his ayllus those whom his father had crushed.
From History of the Incas by Sir Clements R. (Clements Robert) Markham
They came according to their ayllus and, on arriving at Quiuipay, they seated themselves in that order.
From History of the Incas by Sir Clements R. (Clements Robert) Markham
I say that all these ayllus have preserved their records in such a way that the memory of them has not been lost.
From History of the Incas by Sir Clements R. (Clements Robert) Markham
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.