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

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Etymology

Origin of ethnicity

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

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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

Where the ethnicity of the victim was known in the race and religion related hate crimes, around one third of victims were identified as Asian and around a quarter as black.

From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026

Higher levels of education, Hispanic ethnicity and Tricare-paid births were associated with fewer deaths.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 8, 2026

She is also scheduled to teach two other classes this spring: one on African-American politics and another on the politics of race, ethnicity and immigration.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026

The practice of collecting race and ethnicity data is as old as the census itself.

From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026

Then she asks if any of us wrote down words that describe our ethnicity.

From "Watch Us Rise" by Renée Watson and Ellen Hagan

She added that no single criterion is weighted above the others and that Aritzia’s employees reflect a range of backgrounds, ages, ethnicities and body types.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026

Newsom last year signed a similar bill that created a category for Middle East and North African individuals separate from the “white” designation that had previously encompassed those ethnicities.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2026

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

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2026

The Home Office has already carried out testing on images of people across different ethnicities and genders, including those that make up the asylum-seeking population, already in its operational system.

From BBC ● May 28, 2026

Every race, dozens of ethnicities, different ways of dressing, and, certainly, widely varying opinions about politics and life and Islam.

From "Internment" by Samira Ahmed

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