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
He joined a team digging for dinosaur fossils in the Zuni Basin in New Mexico.
From NewsForKids.net ● Jun. 3, 2024
Zuni farmers in the southwestern United States made it through long stretches of extremely low rainfall between A.D.
From Salon ● Feb. 26, 2024
He’s hopeful that young Zuni could find peace and healing on the Cottonwood Wash.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 3, 2024
The Oklahoma boys did some of their dancing, too, and the Zuni guy sang a kind of honoring song for everyone.
From "Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two" by Joseph Bruchac
The Hopi and Zuñi tribes of Arizona and the modern Pueblo people of northern New Mexico are their descendants.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 18, 2018
Frank Cushing once took a party of Zuñi Indians to the Atlantic Ocean to get sea-water for certain ceremonials.
From American Indians by Frederick Starr
July Coronado reached the Zuñi pueblos, which he conquered with little difficulty.
From The Colonization of North America 1492-1783 by Herbert Eugene Bolton
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
The Eagle Dance, done by the Zuñi or Hopi Indian men, is much more energetic but Nita makes a very good gallant, I think, and Zan a demure and willing lady-love.”
From The Woodcraft Girls in the City by Lillian Elizabeth Roy
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
Such a man would have been an absurdity to the Sioux, the Cherokee or the Zunis.
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
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.
