Native American

¹ American  

[ney-tiv uh-mer-i-kuhn] / ˈneɪ tɪv əˈmɛr ɪ kən /

noun

1. Indian.

2. a member of any of the aboriginal peoples of the Americas, including Indians and non-Indians.

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native American ² American  

noun

1. a person born in the United States.

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Native American British  

noun

1. A member of the indigenous peoples of North America

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adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of Native Americans or any of their languages

Sensitive Note

See Indian, Eskimo.

Other Word Forms

• native-American adjective

Etymology

Origin of native American

An Americanism dating back to 1835–45

Example Sentences

Based on thorough research of published and unpublished sources, as well as Native American oral tradition, the book gives this well-known story a fresh breadth of implication.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 16, 2026

It does not apply to persons who are not subject to US jurisdiction -- foreign diplomats, for example, and sovereign Native American tribes.

From Barron's • Apr. 1, 2026

Stewart continued to find audiences in Texas dance halls, as well as on the Native American reservations of the Southwest.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 27, 2026

In all of the tension around the founding and the founding documents, there lurks this question of Native American belonging and exclusion and citizenship.

From Slate • Mar. 16, 2026

Southwest and Mississippi Valley to the modern American breadbaskets of California and Oregon, where Native American societies remained hunter-gatherers merely because they lacked appropriate domesticates.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond