Paiute
Americannoun
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a member of a group of North American Indians of the Uto-Aztecan family dwelling in California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona.
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either of two mutually unintelligible Uto-Aztecan languages Northern Paiute and Southern Paiute.
noun
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a member of either of two North American Indian peoples ( Northern Paiute and Southern Paiute ) of the Southwestern US, related to the Aztecs
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the language of either of these peoples, belonging to the Shoshonean subfamily of the Uto-Aztecan family
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.
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South of the town of Big Pine, Noah Williams, Red Owl’s son and a member of the Bishop Paiute Tribe, walked through dry brush to a low-lying stretch of desert.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 18, 2025
The Bishop Paiute, Big Pine Paiute and Lone Pine Paiute-Shoshone tribes, like many other tribes across California and the West, still don’t have legal recognition of their water rights.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 18, 2025
The Paiute and Shoshone suffered after the arrival of settlers, including in 1863, when troops forced nearly 1,000 Native people to march out of the valley to Fort Tejon, about 175 miles away.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 15, 2024
In this case, the Navajo, Hopi and San Juan Southern Paiute tribes are seeking more than $5 billion as part of their settlement.
From Seattle Times ● May 23, 2024
One informant said that Silver City, Idaho, was within the limits of Paiute territory; according to other informants, the Bruneau River Valley was definitely within the Shoshone migratory range.
From Shoshone-Bannock Subsistence and Society by Murphy, Robert F.
Some Indians opposed to the mine say it will disturb sacred ground where a massacre of Paiutes took place in 1865.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 6, 2023
I also spoke to a member of the Moapa Band of Paiutes, a neighboring tribe, who do not count Avi Kwa Ame as their origin site, but still recognize its deep cultural relevance.
From New York Times ● Jan. 24, 2023
They worked as ranch hands for several decades, and in 1970, the Las Vegas Paiutes became recognized as a sovereign nation, after which they launched several businesses.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 11, 2019
The Paiutes were like, "Well, hey. You know, we're here, but we know you don't mean us."
From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2019
Very long ago all the Paiutes of this valley were ruled by two brothers, a chief and a medicine man, Winnedumah and Tinnemaha.
From The Basket Woman A Book of Indian Tales for Children by Austin, Mary Hunter
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.
