Indian

American  

[in-dee-uhn] / ˈɪn di ən /

noun

Indians plural

1. Also called American Indian, Amerind, Amerindian, Native American.  a member of any of the aboriginal peoples of the Americas, especially of subarctic North America, excluding the Inuit, Yupik, and Aleut.

2. any of the Indigenous languages of the American Indians. Ind

3. a member of any of the peoples native to or inhabiting India or the East Indies.

4. a citizen of the Republic of India.

5. Slang. a person who performs a required task or carries out the instructions of superiors.

   We have too many chiefs and not enough Indians.

6. Astronomy. the constellation Indus.

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adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of the American Indians or their languages.

2. of, relating to, or characteristic of India or the East Indies.

3. made of Indian corn.

   Indian meal.

4. Zoogeography. oriental.

5. Phytogeography. belonging or pertaining to a geographical division comprising India south of the Himalayas, and Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Indian British  

/ ˈɪndɪən /

noun

1. a native, citizen, or inhabitant of the Republic of India

2. old-fashioned a Native American

3. (not in scholarly usage) any of the languages of Native Americans

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adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of India, its inhabitants, or any of their languages

2. (Not in scholarly usage) of, relating to, or characteristic of Native Americans or any of their languages

Sensitive Note

Because Christopher Columbus mistakenly believed that the Caribbean island on which he had landed was the subcontinent of India, he called the inhabitants Indians. Eventually, that name was applied to almost all the Indigenous, non-European inhabitants of North and South America. In modern times Indian may refer to an inhabitant of the subcontinent of India or of the East Indies, to a citizen of the Republic of India, or to a member of an aboriginal American people. However, the term Indian is not applied to the Inuit, Yupik, and Aleut of Arctic North America. In the 18th century the term American Indian came to be used for the aboriginal inhabitants of the United States and Canada; it now includes the aboriginal peoples of South America as well. (When necessary, further distinctions are made with such terms as North American Indian and South American Indian. ) The terms Amerindian and Amerind subsequently developed in the attempt to reduce ambiguity. The most recent designation, especially in North America, is Native American. American Indians themselves tend to favor the terms Indian, American Indian, or a specific tribal name. They sometimes refer to themselves collectively as Indian peoples. All these terms appear in edited writing. Whether one or several will gain ascendancy over the others remains to be seen. See Eskimo. See also honest Injun, Indian giver.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• pre-Indian
  noun
• anti-Indian
  adjective
• non-Indian
  adjective
• pro-Indian
  adjective
• pseudo-Indian
  adjective
• trans-Indian
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• Indians
  plural

Etymology

Origin of Indian

First recorded in 1350–1400; from Medieval Latin Indiānus; replacing Middle English Indien, from Old French, from Medieval Latin as above; see India, -an

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Indian Indians

These worries have weighed on markets, with the benchmark Nifty 50 down around seven percent this year and foreign investors pulling over $27 billion from Indian equities.

From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026

Indian executives acknowledge the risks could hurt near-term sentiment but argue domestic demand would eventually offset any slowdown abroad.

From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026

Rather than signalling a fundamental shift in Indian politics, he says it may simply reflect politicians doing what they have always done: trying to speak the language of the voters they hope to win over.

From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026

While traditional Indian media may back him, this is becoming much less important in the age of social media.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026

The Indian men gather around one of the cannons to lift it.

From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone

"Social media has now permeated to the smallest towns in India, and has near ubiquity among young Indians," he told AFP.

From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026

It comes two days after Dharmendra Pradhan resigned as education minister over repeated failures in the conduct of competitive exams that have fuelled anger among millions of young Indians.

From Barron's ● Jul. 27, 2026

That may also explain why, more than seven decades later, Indians continue to reach instinctively for the hunger strike.

From BBC ● Jul. 16, 2026

Many excluded Indians altogether or admitted only a small number of princes and magnates.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026

“There was Indians so much around there,” she testified.

From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann