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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  

[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

Even so, prominent backers in both parties express confidence that the program is here to stay in a state where Hispanic and Native-American residents together account for more than 60 percent of the population.

From New York Times • Mar. 31, 2022

“No one I’ve ever known has done anything like that. You go to a Native-American pow wow and you don’t hear anything like this.”

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 17, 2021

They included the story of Rosa Parks, an image of Native-American leaders standing in front of Mount Rushmore and an atom bomb mushroom cloud.

From Fox News • Apr. 1, 2019

The boy, who is healthy, has been staying with family members who are part of the Native-American Apache tribe.

From BBC • Feb. 5, 2019

The Native-American Party was formed, in 1841, "to prevent the union of Church and State," and to "keep the Bible in the schools."

From The History of Education; educational practice and progress considered as a phase of the development and spread of western civilization by Cubberley, Ellwood Patterson