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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

To not only have the African-oriented or African American music, but music from Mexico, Indigenous Native American music, Asian music, so people can be exposed to different forms of spiritual music.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 29, 2026

The land wasn’t empty, and Native American tribes fought fiercely to defend it in alliance with the British, leading Washington to dispatch multiple punitive expeditions to subdue them and exert American control.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 24, 2026

A group of Native American activists occupied the land during a period between 1969 and 1971, and in 1972, Alcatraz became a national recreation area under National Park Service management.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 3, 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

Similarly, Native American farmers of the North American Great Plains grew crops in the river valleys, but farming of the tough sods on the extensive uplands had to await 19th-century Europeans and their animal-drawn plows.

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