Zapotec

American  

[zap-uh-tek, zah-puh-, sah-paw-tek] / ˈzæp əˌtɛk, ˈzɑ pə-, ˌsɑ pɔˈtɛk /

noun

• Zapotecs,
  plural
• Zapotec
  plural

1. a member of an American Indian people living in the Mexican state of Oaxaca.

2. the Oto-Manguean language of the Zapotecs, consisting of a number of highly divergent dialects.

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adjective

1. Archaeology. of or relating to a Mesoamerican Indian civilization of the Oaxaca region of Mexico c600 b.c. to a.d. 1000, characterized by a bar-and-dot system of enumeration, a calendar of Mayan derivation, ball courts, and underground frescoed tombs.

Zapotec British  

/ ˈzɑːpəˌtɛk /

noun

1. Also: Zapotecan. any member of a large tribe of central American Indians inhabiting S Mexico, esp the Mexican state of Oaxaca

2. the group of languages spoken by this people

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adjective

1. Also: Zapotecan. of or relating to this people or their language

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• Zapotec
  plural
• Zapotecs
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of Zapotec

< Mexican Spanish zapoteco < Nahuatl tzapotēcah, plural of tzapotēcatl person from Tzapotlān ( tzapo ( tl ) sapodilla + -tēcatl suffix of personal nouns, -tlān locative suffix)

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Zapotec Zapotecs

Crafted by a Zapotec artist and dated to 800-900, he has a man’s body but the claws and head of a bat.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026

The Mixteco Indigena Community Organizing Project fosters “community with 60 to 100 Indigenous youth from the Mixteco, Zapotec, and many other Diasporic communities throughout the Central Coast.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 4, 2026

The flowers were painstakingly hand-sewn onto the fabric by Claudia Vazquez, a 43-year-old Zapotec Indigenous woman who told AFP she had nearly given up on embroidery, her first love.

From Barron's ● Jan. 2, 2026

"This falls short of the respect and collaborative approach that Oaxaca, the Zapotec community of Villa Hidalgo Yalalag, and its people deserve," he added.

From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2025

This map does not depict it accurately, because these societies were not contemporaries—the Olmec vanished centuries before the Nudzahui and Zapotec began to reach their height, for example.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

The site was established in roughly 200 A.D. as a fortified village, and then as a burial ground by the Zapotecs, the so-called Cloud People, who settled in the region around 1,500 B.C.

From New York Times ● Dec. 23, 2023

The Olmec influenced Mesoamerican cultures that followed, including the Zapotecs of Oaxaca, the Teotihuacanos of the Valley of Mexico, and the Maya of southern Mexico and Guatemala.

From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023

The Zapotecs were contemporaries of the ancient Maya, with both cultures known for their elaborate writing, among the world's first-ever literary traditions.

From Reuters ● Jan. 19, 2023

Because it means "I love you" in the language of the Zapotecs, an indigenous population from southern Mexico.

From Salon ● Nov. 17, 2022

In general their usages and religious rites resembled those of the Aztecs, although the Zapotecs, besides the civil ruler, had a High Priest who took part in the government.

From Man, Past and Present by Alfred Court Haddon

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