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.
Most Muslims, however, belong to the Sunni strand of Islam.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 13, 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
Though much of southern Lebanon is predominantly Shiite, Kfar Chouba and its neighbors comprise a pocket of Christian, Druze and Sunni Muslim communities.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 7, 2026
Shia Islam is Iran's state religion, and also a major religious branch in Bahrain, alongside Sunni Islam.
From Barron's ● Mar. 28, 2026
We visited Baghdad, the U.S. military headquarters in Fallujah, and the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit encampment outside Babil, in the heart of Iraq’s so-called Sunni Triangle.
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.
