Sunni
Americannoun
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Also called Sunnite. a member of one of the two great religious divisions of Islam, regarding the first four caliphs as legitimate successors of Muhammad and stressing the importance of Sunna as a basis for law.
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(used with a plural verb) the Sunni Muslims.
noun
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one of the two main branches of orthodox Islam (the other being the Shiah), consisting of those who acknowledge the authority of the Sunna
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another term for Sunnite
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of Sunni
1620–30; < Arabic sunnī, derivative of sunnah Sunna
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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.
The nearby Sunni al-Kantari Mosque took the opposite approach, opening its doors and providing supplies to Shias sheltering at a neighboring Sunni school.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 9, 2026
This week, prominent Sunni cleric Moulana Abdol Hamid called a “fair agreement” the only viable path forward and warned that those who seek to block negotiations would bear responsibility for the “homeland’s devastation.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2026
The pontiff arrived in Algeria on Monday, marking the first visit by any pope to the predominantly Sunni Muslim country.
From BBC ● Apr. 14, 2026
Why shouldn’t that work in the Middle East, even if he can’t distinguish Sunni from Shia and doesn’t understand the basic geography of the region?
From Salon ● Mar. 14, 2026
The makeshift 24th MEU base is a sort of Fort Apache, in the middle of a pretty hostile Iraqi Sunni Muslim population.
From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman
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.
