Inca
Americannoun
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Incas
plural
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a member of any of the dominant groups of South American Indian peoples who established an empire in Peru prior to the Spanish conquest.
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a ruler or member of the royal family in the Incan empire.
noun
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a member of a South American Indian people whose great empire centred on Peru lasted from about 1100 ad to the Spanish conquest in the early 1530s and is famed for its complex culture
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the ruler or king of this empire or any member of his family
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the language of the Incas See also Quechua
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of Inca
1585–95; < Spanish < Quechua inka ruler of the Inca state
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.
See Examples For:
The complex was occupied between 600 and 1050 CE, roughly 400 years before the Inca rose to power.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 18, 2026
Archaeologists working at an ancient burial complex in Peru have uncovered remarkable evidence of hairless dogs that lived more than 1,200 years ago, long before the rise of the Inca Empire.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 18, 2026
“Crypto use in Venezuela will persist and likely expand in the short term,” said Adam Zarazinski, chief executive officer of the crypto-intelligence firm Inca Digital.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 10, 2026
The two trains involved in the accident were operated by PeruRail and Inca Rail respectively.
From BBC ● Dec. 30, 2025
Many people traveled to Cuzco, the grand city where the Sapa Inca, our emperor, lived.
From "The Ugly One" by Leanne Statland Ellis
Unfortunately for the Incas, their case also underscores the truth that the advantages of manmade connections can run both ways, sometimes to the detriment of the creators.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2025
“There’s a mystical weirdness about the place that is so cool,” Glasnow said of the ancient stone-walled structures of the Lost City of the Incas.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 27, 2024
From there the Princess will head to Qoricancha, or “The Golden Temple” in Quechua language, considered the most important - and most sacred - temple by the Incas.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 3, 2023
Today, we know that de la Vega’s vision of the Incas was idealized.
From New York Times ● Nov. 1, 2023
Pizarro too arrived at Cajamarca with no information about the Incas other than what he had learned by interrogating the Inca subjects he encountered in 1527 and 1531.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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