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• Native American
  Native American

  noun

  Indian.
• native American
  native American

  noun

  a person born in the United States.

Native American

¹ American  

[nay-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

See Examples For:

Native American native American

The event kicked off with multicultural music by Native American, Korean and West African drum ensembles.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2026

Those categories include Black, Latino, Native American, Alaska Native and Pacific Islander students, according to the UC enrollment report cited in the notice.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026

Early artistic attempts were largely derivative of European art; Native American and folk art weren’t taken seriously until recent decades, and decorative objects were deemed “industrial arts” for a long time.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 5, 2026

That population balance helps explain why most of the more than 7,000 artifacts recovered from the site since 2006 are fragments of Native American pottery.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 22, 2026

Against that grim list, the sole crowd infectious diseases that can be attributed with certainty to pre-Columbian Native American societies were nonsyphilitic treponemas.

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

States receiving funds had to consult with unions, native American tribes and “local community organizations” on their plans to expand broadband.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 28, 2025

Rather than lose the unique and native American tree and replace it with a newly created hybrid, they hope to cure the native species before it disappears.

From Salon ● Dec. 18, 2023

Although the variant was established in Asia as a result of interbreeding between Denisovans and sapiens, it also spread to European and native American populations.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 30, 2023

Seal, a native American Sign Language signer, would convert the messages to make them easier to understand for those who are deaf or hard of hearing.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2023

Chestnut was especially popular—not the imported European chestnut roasted on Manhattan street corners in the fall, but the smaller, soft-shelled, deeply sweet native American chestnut, now almost extinguished by chestnut blight.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann