Zuni
noun
a member of a group of North American Indians inhabiting the largest of the Indian pueblos, in western New Mexico.
Zuni
American
[zoo-nee]
/ ˈzu ni /
Also
Zuñi
noun
-
Zunis,
plural
-
Zuni
plural
-
a member of a group of North American Indians inhabiting the largest of the Indian pueblos, in western New Mexico.
-
the language of the Zuni.
Zuñi
British
/ ˈzuːnjiː, ˈsuː- /
noun
-
a member of a North American Indian people of W New Mexico
-
the language of this people, a member of the Penutian phylum of languages
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of Zuni
An Americanism first recorded in 1830–35; earlier Zuñi, from Spanish (southwestern United States), from Acoma Keresan sɨ̂·ni (pronounced sθɨ̂·nyi ) or a cognate
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:
Denied entrance by the Zuni inhabitants, the starving Spaniards decided to attack.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 28, 2026
While giving back local control was Trump’s stated rationale, tribes in the area, like the Diné, Ute, Hopi, and Zuni, had been working for years to protect the two iconic and culturally significant sites.
From Salon ● Oct. 26, 2024
He joined a team digging for dinosaur fossils in the Zuni Basin in New Mexico.
From NewsForKids.net ● Jun. 3, 2024
Anthony Sanchez, the head councilman for the Pueblo of Zuni, explained that non-Native groups will sometimes use supposed ties to tribes to boost their own PR.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 3, 2024
That is what the ck’o’yo Kaup’a’ta, Gambler did, up there in the Zuni mountains.
From "Ceremony:" by Leslie Marmon Silko
The Hopi and Zuñi tribes of Arizona and the modern Pueblo people of northern New Mexico are their descendants.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 18, 2018
I have read that among the Zuñi Indians it was a sacred law that some of their tribe should, each year, pour the waters of the Pacific into those of the Atlantic.
From A Flight in Spring In the car Lucania from New York to the Pacific coast and back, during April and May, 1898 by J. Harris (John Harris) Knowles
Moqui and Zuñi resistance.—The reconquest of the New Mexico pueblos had been effected by Vargas at the end of the seventeenth century.
From The Colonization of North America 1492-1783 by Herbert Eugene Bolton
The Zuñi Indians who have an eye for the picturesque as well as for the truth state the chief fact about haloes happily: “When the sun is in his house it will rain soon.”
From Reading the Weather by Thomas Morris Longstreth
The religious functions of the Zuñi are most marked in the ceremonies of the Ko-tikkyanne, the "god-society" or "masked-dancer society," and it is with these that the kivas are associated.
From Man, Past and Present by Alfred Court Haddon
Coronado survived the fight with the Zunis at Hawikku.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 28, 2026
The Zunis rained stones down on the invaders; one well-aimed boulder struck Coronado’s helmet.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 28, 2026
They worked as coal miners, train mechanics, barkeeps, cowpunchers, lumberjacks, shepherds and Indian traders — Slavs, Italians, Finns, Russians, Irish, Greeks, Mexicans, Navajos and Zunis.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2017
Last month 1,000 Navajos and 300 Zunis went a-nutting in small canvas-covered wagons.
From Time Magazine Archive
They were Navajos, but he had seen Zunis and Lagunas and Hopis there too, walking alone or in twos and threes along the dusty Gallup streets.
From "Ceremony:" by Leslie Marmon Silko
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