ethnicity

American  

[eth-nis-i-tee] / ɛθˈnɪs ɪ ti /

noun

• ethnicities
  plural

1. an ethnic group; a social group that shares a common and distinctive culture, religion, language, or the like.

   Representatives of several ethnicities were present.

2. ethnic traits, background, allegiance, or association.

   The graph shows class enrollment by gender and ethnicity.

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ethnicity Cultural  

1. Identity with or membership in a particular racial, national, or cultural group and observance of that group's customs, beliefs, and language.

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Usage

race ²

Discover More

Many minority groups in the United States maintain strong ethnic identity; especially in cities, immigrants are often attracted to ethnic communities established by people from their own country, communities in which many traditional cultural features are maintained. (See melting pot.)

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• ethnicities
  plural

Etymology

Origin of ethnicity

First recorded in 1765–75, for earlier sense; ethnic + -ity

Explanation

A person's ethnicity is their ethnic traits, classification, or association. If your ethnicity is Italian, you might speak Italian in the home and eat Italian food. Or you might simply refer to yourself as Italian and identify with your ethnicity in no other way. Usually, ethnicity is a collective noun, but in the singular, an ethnicity is a particular ethnic group. The adjective ethnic relates to large groups of people who have certain racial, cultural, religious, or other traits in common. In Middle English, ethnic meant heathen or pagan. The word is from Late Latin ethnicus, from Greek ethnikos "foreign," from ethnos "nation."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ethnicity ethnicities

McManus says there could be many reasons why a person's ethnicity is not put out in the media.

From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026

"The longitudinal exploration of cardiovascular health throughout life, rather than assessing it at a single time point, could also provide further insight into the trajectory phenotypes contributing to cognitive decline by ethnicity," Vazquez said.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 16, 2026

The Home Office also published data showing the ethnicity of those referred to Prevent.

From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026

I asked El-Sayed if, when people argue he’s unelectable, he felt they were talking about his ethnicity or his politics.

From Slate ● Jul. 30, 2026

Everyone—even those who had not had diversity training at taxpayer expense—knew that even though it was correct to recognize a person's ethnicity, it was not correct to comment upon it in public.

From "The View From Saturday" by E.L. Konigsburg

People of all ages and ethnicities waited in a line that was easily an hour long.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 4, 2026

The influence and ethnicities blended in discreetly over the centuries, Guevarra says.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2026

The 44-year-old is deeply engrained in United's culture and has no doubts about the integrity of the club's efforts to be welcoming to people of all ethnicities.

From Barron's ● Feb. 20, 2026

The rest, most of whom are residents of large cities such as Tehran, are mixed with other ethnicities and assimilated into mainstream Iranian culture.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 21, 2026

It was a small, silly moment, but it also showed that boys from thirteen different countries and a wide array of ethnicities and religions and who spoke different languages were creating their own inside jokes.

From "Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman's Quest to Make a Difference" by Warren St. John