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• Nez Perce
  Nez Perce

  noun

  a member of a North American Indian people of the Sahaptin family.
• Nez Percé
  Nez Percé

  noun

  a member of a North American Indian people of the Pacific coast, a tribe of the Sahaptin

Nez Perce

American  

[nez purs, nay per-say] / ˈnɛz ˈpɜrs, neɪ pɛrˈseɪ /

Or Nez Percé

noun

• Nez Perces,
  plural
• Nez Perce
  plural

1. Also called Nimiipuu. a member of a North American Indian people of the Sahaptin family.

2. Also called Nimipuutimt. the Sahaptin language of the Nez Perce.

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adjective

1. of or relating to the Nez Perce or their language.

Nez Percé British  

/ ˈnɛz ˈpɜːs, ne pɛrse /

noun

1. a member of a North American Indian people of the Pacific coast, a tribe of the Sahaptin

2. the Sahaptin language of this people

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• Nez Perce
  plural
• Nez Perces
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of Nez Perce

First recorded in 1805–15; from French: literally, “pierced nose”

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Nez Perce Nez Percé

The Nez Perce Tribe and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation also responded and helped by collecting and scanning transponders on the dead fish.

From BBC ● Apr. 3, 2024

Employees from a local hatchery, members of the Nez Perce tribe and the Union County Sheriff’s Office came to help and to clean up the fish.

From New York Times ● Apr. 3, 2024

Gladstone, who is of Piegan Blackfeet and Nez Perce heritage, is the first Native American actress to be nominated for an Oscar.

From Salon ● Jan. 23, 2024

Under it, federal technical assistance would be provided to the Yakama, Nez Perce, Umatilla and Warm Springs tribes to develop and deploy “clean, renewable socially-just energy resources” in the region.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 30, 2023

We found the trail of the Nez Perce Indians.

From The Vanishing Race by Joseph Kossuth Dixon

They stand alongside the Nez Percé singer Julia Keefe — a songbird of a jazz vocalist, who also fronts a big band — and the Wabanaki bassist, composer and vocalist Mali Obomsawin.

From New York Times ● Feb. 24, 2023

Army in 1877 after the U.S. government had appropriated Nez Percé land.

From Textbooks ● Dec. 21, 2021

In 1871, Arlee, a Nez Percé by birth, acquiesced to the U.S. government’s demands that the Bitterroot Salish relocate.

From New York Times ● Apr. 4, 2018

From my room at the Best Western I downloaded images of the Nez Percé to show Rinpoche at dinner.

From New York Times ● May 20, 2012

Just beyond him was a grassy glade glistening with morning dew, and scattered over it was the entire command of the wicked old mule, the wealth and the comfort together of the Nez Percé pony-riders.

From Two Arrows A Story of Red and White by William Osborn Stoddard

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