Montagnard
Americannoun
noun
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a member of a hill people living on the border between Vietnam, Laos, and NE Cambodia
-
a member of a North American Indian people living in the N Rocky Mountains
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of Montagnard
1835–45; < French: literally, mountaineer. See mountain, -ard
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:
Earlier in the year Thailand also sent a Vietnamese Montagnard activist back to Vietnam.
From BBC ● Jan. 8, 2025
Around the corner was an old Montagnard man holding a long knife used to cut corn, ready to defend his family.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 10, 2021
Or civilian and official Mike Benge, from Heppner, Ore., an expert on Montagnard affairs, who disappeared into Viet Cong captivity in the Central Highlands.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 29, 2018
Montagnard is a term coined by the colonial French for various indigenous Central Highland tribes who speak a handful of different languages.
From Salon ● Nov. 29, 2015
Maybe up in one of the high mountain villes, maybe with the Montagnard tribes.
From "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien
Both were Montagnards, members of the Revolution’s most ardent faction; Corday, from the rival Girondins, gained entry to Marat’s bathroom by claiming to have information on Girondin fugitives.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 21, 2025
Montagnards -- the collective name for various tribes in the Central Highlands -- sided with the US-backed south during Vietnam's decades-long war.
From Barron's ● Dec. 1, 2025
He served as a medic in Vietnam and helped train a large group of indigenous Montagnards to fight with the American and South Vietnamese forces.
From New York Times ● Jun. 2, 2017
John Alles, a Special Forces veteran who advocates for the Montagnards, said the US could do more for the group, but their limited numbers in the US mean they haven’t been a priority.
From Salon ● Nov. 29, 2015
One hundred and fifty Montagnards, as I said, had been elected.
From The Recollections of Alexis de Tocqueville by Tocqueville, Alexis de
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.
