Yaqui

American  

[yah-kee] / ˈyɑ ki /

noun

plural

Yaquis,

plural

Yaqui

1. Also called Yoeme.  a member of an Indigenous people of Sonora, Mexico, now living also in other parts of northwestern Mexico and in Arizona and Texas.

2. Also called Yoem Noki.  the Uto-Aztecan language of the Yaqui.

3. a river in northwestern Mexico, flowing into the Gulf of California. 420 miles (676 kilometers) long.

---

adjective

1. of or relating to the Yaqui or their language.

Yaqui British  

/ ˈjaki /

noun

1. a river in NW Mexico, rising near the border with the US and flowing south to the Gulf of California. Length: about 676 km (420 miles)

---

Etymology

Origin of Yaqui

First recorded in 1860–65; from Mexican Spanish, from earlier Hiaquis (plural), from Yaqui hiaki, hiyaki “the Yaqui River”

Example Sentences

That invitation begins at mile 18, where the Yaqui Pass Road turnoff leads northeast toward the desert basin and the gateway community of Borrego Springs.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 7, 2026

Burgundy Trejo Phoenix, an Yaqui actress who voices a character named Squash in “Spirit Rangers,” first connected with the Chapter House when it screened the Season 4 finale of the kids show in April.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 9, 2024

The policy will force the Pascua Yaqui "to choose between houses for our families and water certainty for our Tribe and our neighbors," then-Chairman Robert Valencia wrote to the Department of Water Resources in 2020.

From Salon • Jul. 2, 2023

Drafting regulations specific to the tribe, like the ones the Pascua Yaqui are doing, “would bring a lot of peace of mind to our whole community,” he said.

From Seattle Times • May 13, 2023

Ascending the Yaqui valley, at Zaguaripa he defeated the very Indians who had destroyed Coronado's town of San Gerónimo.

From The Colonization of North America 1492-1783 by Bolton, Herbert Eugene