Native American
noun
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Native American
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native American
native Americannouna person born in the United States.
Native American
1 American
[ney-tiv uh-mer-i-kuhn]
/ ˈneɪ tɪv əˈmɛr ɪ kən /
noun
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a member of any of the aboriginal peoples of the Americas, including Indians and non-Indians.
native American
2
American
noun
Native American
British
noun
adjective
Sensitive Note
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of native American
An Americanism dating back to 1835–45
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:
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
Patterson wanted to center the film around a Native American woman who stops at nothing, he told AFP.
From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026
Many Native American names were modified over time by speakers of European languages.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
He says a message from a Native American man who had red hair instantly aroused his curiosity.
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2026
Indeed, the master narrative led to such surprising conclusions about Native American societies before the arrival of Europeans that it stirred up an intellectual firestorm.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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
He owned or leased about 18,000 acres and put them all to work: as full-sized sets representing Old West towns, a Dutch village with a windmill, Swiss and Puritan and native American and fishing settlements.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 25, 2025
The first would be the “Hollywood favourite shows tour de force range” choice, the second would be the “making history” choice - Gladstone would be the first ever native American acting win.
From BBC ● Mar. 10, 2024
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
The sabre-tooth cats, after flourishing for more than 30 million years, disappeared, and so did the giant ground sloths, the oversized lions, native American horses, native American camels, the giant rodents and the mammoths.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
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.
