Sunni

American  

[soon-ee] / ˈsʊn i /

noun

Islam.

1. 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.

2. (used with a plural verb) the Sunni Muslims.

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Sunni British  

/ ˈsʌnɪ /

noun

1. one of the two main branches of orthodox Islam (the other being the Shiah), consisting of those who acknowledge the authority of the Sunna

2. another term for Sunnite

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Other Word Forms

• Sunnism noun

Etymology

Origin of Sunni

1620–30; < Arabic sunnī, derivative of sunnah Sunna

Compare meaning

How does sunni compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• Sunni vs. Shiʿite

Example Sentences

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

Aisha Bakkar is one of several Beirut neighbourhoods that are majority Sunni Muslim, while Lebanon is also home to Christians, Druze and others.

From Barron's

Kurds, while mostly Sunni, share cultural and linguistic affinities with Persians and have historically had less friction with the Iranian state than with fellow Kurds in Iraq and Turkey.

From Barron's

Despite a shared enmity for the United States and Israel, the Shiite and Sunni militias are bitter sectarian foes.

From Los Angeles Times

He was influenced by Sayyid Qutb, the Sunni Egyptian theoretician of the Muslim Brotherhood who propagated the idea of an Islamic Republic.

From The Wall Street Journal