a member of a people of Tibetan descent living in the Nepalese Himalayas, who often serve as porters on mountain-climbing expeditions.
a Tibetic language spoken by the Sherpa.
Sometimes sherpa an expert chosen by a chief executive to assist in preparations for a summit meeting.
First recorded in 1840–50; from Sherpa sharpa, equiavalent to shar “east” + pa “people” (referring to the origin of this people in eastern Tibet)
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A climbing boom has made mountaineering a lucrative business since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa made the first ascent in 1953.
From Barron's • May 17, 2026
"Six villages in the region are vulnerable to floods and so are the more than 60,000 tourists who visit our region every year," Sherpa pointed out.
From BBC • Apr. 24, 2026
"There is no choice. We spent four days touring the area, looking at every place from the mountain to the right and left," Ang Sarki Sherpa said over the phone from Base Camp.
From BBC • Apr. 23, 2026
He and his Sherpa emerged from their tent into 50-mile-an-hour winds, a blizzard so fierce that Whittaker couldn’t see his feet.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 15, 2026
Kami Dorje Sherpa, the climbing sirdar for the Taiwanese team, apologized profusely and promised to make amends.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
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.
