a communal structure for multiple dwelling and defensive purposes of certain agricultural Indians of the southwestern United States: built of adobe or stone, typically many-storied and terraced, the structures were often placed against cliff walls, with entry through the roof by ladder.
(initial capital letter) a member of a group of Indian peoples living in pueblo villages in New Mexico and Arizona since prehistoric times.
an Indian village.
(in Spanish America) a town or village.
(in the Philippines) a town or a township.
a communal village, built by certain Indians of the southwestern US and parts of Latin America, consisting of one or more flat-roofed stone or adobe houses
(in Spanish America) a village or town
(in the Philippines) a town or township
An Americanism dating back to 1800–10; from Colonial Spanish; Spanish: “town,” from Latin populus “community, people, nation”; cf. people ( def. )
If your home is in a pueblo, you probably live in the southwestern part of the United States, in a community of adobe houses. This noun of Spanish origin refers to a structure and institution of Native American origin: a communal village consisting of contiguous, multistory flat-roofed houses. Spanish explorers of the American Southwest were the first to use the word pueblo. The ultimate root, populus, is Latin and is related to population and people. Today, the state of New Mexico is home to the greatest number of pueblos still in use.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
To this day, cities like L.A. retain water rights from those pueblo days.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026
Coronado climbed a ladder up the pueblo walls in his clanking armor.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 28, 2026
Hackman and Arakawa “were not interested in re-creating native pueblo architecture,” he added.
From MarketWatch ● Jan. 19, 2026
Lopez, who’s also the co-owner of the Guelaguetza in Koreatown that his parents opened in 1994, says attending “First Fridays” feels like being in a pueblo or small town in Mexico.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2024
The old men of the pueblo had much more definite answers.
From "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley
The North American portfolio centers around Barrick’s majority owned Nevada gold venture with Newmont, the wholly-owned Fourmile discovery in Nevada, and the Pueblo Viejo mine in Dominican Republic that is minority owned by Newmont.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 5, 2026
The new business would be anchored by the majority-owned Nevada Gold Mines and the Pueblo Viejo mine in the Dominican Republic, as well as its wholly-owned Fourmile discovery in Nevada.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 19, 2026
Jaramillo died Aug. 8 of congestive heart failure in Pueblo, Colo. He was 78.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2025
That was in 1932, when Pueblo artists Ma Pe Wi and Tonita Peña and Hopi artist Fred Kabotie also exhibited their paintings.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 4, 2025
Stars and Stripes had a story about the Pueblo, and some guys were talking about the possibility of the U.S. getting involved with Korea again.
From "Fallen Angels" by Walter Dean Myers
Losing faith in the reality of Quivira, Coronado sent most of his men back to the Tiwa pueblos.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 28, 2026
After Coronado recuperated, he marched east until the Spaniards encountered 12 Tiwa pueblos near present-day Albuquerque, N.M.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 28, 2026
This is a solo inspired by rituals that Graham observed in the pueblos of the American Southwest, specifically, the kachina figures that served as comic relief at religious ceremonies.
From New York Times ● Apr. 16, 2024
“Every single time that I go to Oaxaca and I go out of the city and go to the pueblos, you see more fields of agave replacing the trees,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 15, 2024
A bird’s-eye view of ten or a dozen of the principal pueblos, then a landing for lunch in the valley of Malpais.
From "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley
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.
