kachina
[ kuh-chee-nuh ]
/ kəˈtʃi nə /
noun
any of various ancestral spirits deified by the Hopi Indians and impersonated in religious rituals by masked dancers.
a Hopi religious ritual at which such masked dancers perform.
a masked dancer impersonating such a spirit at a Hopi religious ritual.
QUIZZES
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We’ve gathered some interesting words donated to English from Portuguese … as well as some that just don’t translate at all. Do you know what they mean?
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Which of the following animal names traces its immediate origin to Portuguese?
Also katcina, katchina.
Origin of kachina
1885–90; <Hopi ḳacína<Keresan (Santa Ana) k̉â˙cina (or a cognate word)
Words nearby kachina
Kabwe 1, Kabyle, kachang puteh, kachcha, Kachera, kachina, kachina doll, Kaczynski, Kadai, kadaitcha, Kádár
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2021
Example sentences from the Web for kachina
The ruins about Kishyuba, connected with the Kachina people, also belong to Tusayan.
Archeological Expedition to Arizona in 1895|Jesse Walter FewkesThe name of this Kachina was Hair Eater, and he was supposed to cut off the hair if he beat the boy, but he never did beat him.
The Unwritten Literature of the Hopi|Hattie Greene Lockett
British Dictionary definitions for kachina
kachina
/ (kəˈtʃiːnə) /
noun
any of the supernatural beings believed by the Hopi Indians to be the ancestors of living humans
Word Origin for kachina
from Hopi qačina supernatural
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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