Okinawan
Americannoun
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Okinawans
plural
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a person from Okinawa.
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a Ryukyuan language, spoken primarily in the southern Okinawa islands.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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:
After clambering up three flights of a dark apartment-building stairwell, I entered Higatei, which celebrates all things awamori, an Okinawan rice-based spirit.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 25, 2025
A public opinion poll conducted last year revealed that 70% of Okinawan residents feel the concentration of US bases there is "unfair".
From BBC ● Feb. 17, 2024
In September, Mr. Tamaki took his case against Tokyo’s support for the U.S. troop presence on Okinawan before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, generating a wave of criticism back home.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 29, 2023
The Mediterranean and Okinawan diets have consistently been shown to contribute to better health, including lower rates of obesity and other metabolic diseases.
From Salon ● Aug. 24, 2023
Our carriers went first, sending planes against the Okinawan airfields.
From "Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two" by Joseph Bruchac
And for Okinawans, it is a homeland, a place with its own language, culture and cuisine separate from the rest of Japan.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 25, 2025
Opinion polls show that Okinawans under 40, accustomed to U.S. bases, are less fervently opposed to them than their elders.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 28, 2024
Mr Asato, who often ferried US troops to bases as a bus driver, added: "There were many complicated economic and cultural relationships between Okinawans and US troops, but it was a mutually beneficial relationship."
From BBC ● Feb. 17, 2024
In southern Japan, Okinawans were advised to take cover as North Korea sought to place a suspected reconnaissance satellite into orbit.
From Washington Times ● May 31, 2023
I supervised twenty-one Okinawans in a machine shop and rose in rank from private first class to corporal.
From "The Boy on the Wooden Box" by Leon Leyson
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.
