Nair

American  

[nahyer, nahy-er] / naɪər, ˈnaɪ ər /

Also Nayer

noun

• Nair,
  plural
• Nairs
  plural

1. a group of Hindu castes in the Kerala region of India.

2. a member of any one of these castes.

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adjective

1. of or relating to this group of castes or their members.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• Nair
  plural
• Nairs
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of Nair

1580–85; < Portuguese naire < Malayalam nāyar members of ruling caste < Sanskrit nāya to lead

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Nair Nairs

Prajith Nair, co-founder of NoBlink.ai, says that they aim to "build at scale so that it is available at economical and affordable cost".

From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026

But one does not always translate to the other—and tennis players, Mr. Borg tells Ms. Kumar Nair, are superstitious.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026

An Indian national, Radhakrishnan Karthik Nair, 47, who worked for both companies as technical superintendent for the ship, the M/V Dali, is also named in the indictment unsealed on Tuesday.

From Barron's ● May 12, 2026

And he didn’t exactly come from nowhere; he’s the son of filmmaker Mira Nair and is open about having been raised in privilege.

From Salon ● Feb. 23, 2026

“I know. Anyway, I’m done talking about all that. Let’s see if we can find a Mira Nair movie on the Hindi channel.”

From "From Twinkle, with Love" by Sandhya Menon

A mutual friend made the introductions between the Nairs and the Maccionis, and Le Cirque Delhi was born.

From New York Times ● Sep. 28, 2011

Some survival of it, or at least the custom of polyandry, is found among the Nairs of southern India and in Thibet.

From The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India—Volume I (of IV) by R. V. (Robert Vane) Russell

The Rani and Venjamutta were friendly, but told him he must take his own vengeance on the Nairs for their inhuman action.

From The Pirates of Malabar, and an Englishwoman in India Two Hundred Years Ago by J. (John) Biddulph

The author of the "Spirit of Laws" asserts, that in the caste of Nairs, on the coast of Malabar, a man can have only one wife, while a woman may have several husbands.

From A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 10 (of 10) From "The Works of Voltaire - A Contemporary Version" by Fran?ois-Marie Arouet (AKA Voltaire)

His body-guard and most of his aristocracy consisted of Nairs and Nestorian Christians, but all commerce was in the hands of the Muhammadan merchants.

From Rulers of India: Albuquerque by Henry Morse Stephens

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