Tonto
noun
a federally recognized tribe of Apache people of Arizona.
Tonto
1 American
[tahn-toh]
/ ˈtɑn toʊ /
noun
-
Tontos
plural
-
a federally recognized tribe of Apache people of Arizona.
-
the Apache language of a federally recognized tribe of Arizona.
tonto
2
American
[tahn-toh]
/ ˈtɑn toʊ /
noun
-
tontos
plural
adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
See Examples For:
The pair devised an instrument they called Tonto, a 12-foot-long collection of synthesizer modules connected by cables—“the finest of Rube Goldberg machines.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
As proposed, the mine would turn Oak Flat — a long-preserved site of rocky outcroppings and desert waterways on the edge of the Tonto National Forest — into a nearly two-mile-wide, 1,000-foot-deep industrial crater.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2025
Tonto National Forest officials said they forwarded email queries from The Associated Press about the agency’s plans to their superiors.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 7, 2023
“Given current drought conditions and the ‘very high’ fire danger level, it is too risky for these activities,” said Taiga Rohrer, fire management officer for the Tonto National Forest.
From Washington Times ● Apr. 30, 2022
When The Lone Ranger came to television, she would watch it just to see Jay Silverheels, the actor who played Tonto.
From "Bad Boy" by Walter Dean Myers
The event is so important in the family’s routine that they can’t imagine a time when there would no tonto to sell.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 1, 2024
This is partly because the retail price of tonto has been largely static over the decades, while the process of brewing it has become more cumbersome.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 1, 2024
And because tonto production takes place outside official purview, authorities are unable to collect revenue from its sale.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 1, 2024
"I certainly think he has gone full tonto," Wallace said.
From Reuters ● Feb. 25, 2022
The granite, when it attains its highest point, is covered with a 200-foot layer of sedimentary rock called the tonto sandstone.
From Through the Grand Canyon from Wyoming to Mexico by E. L. (Ellsworth Leonardson) Kolb
The Comanches feather their arrows with two feathers; the Navajos, Utes and all Apaches, except the Tontos, have three feathers--the Tontos using four feathers for each shaft.
They'd had a scrimmage with Tontos, they said, but got through safely, barring just this one—'Tonio they called him—said he was a chief of the old tribe.
From Tonio, Son of the Sierras A Story of the Apache War by Charles J. Post
It was thus that by 1873 the Tontos, Coyoteros, and Apache-Mohave were subdued and the backbone of Apache resistance broken.
From The North American Indian by Edward S. Curtis
Could he mean that they who killed Bennett were hostile Tontos, and that these who bore the poor widowed creature were of the Mohave blood?
From Tonio, Son of the Sierras A Story of the Apache War by Charles J. Post
The renegades of northern Arizona in the earliest of the seventies were mainly Tontos, but many a young brave of the Apache Mohave tribe had cast his lot with them.
From Tonio, Son of the Sierras A Story of the Apache War by Charles J. Post
I started up, willing to observe whatever might be visible, or have the satisfaction of showing them what tontos they were.
From Mexico Its Ancient and Modern Civilisation, History, Political Conditions, Topography, Natural Resources, Industries and General Development by Martin Hume
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.
