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.
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
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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
Far into the south there were smoky blue ridges of the mountain haze at Zuni.
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
Since Mr. Cushing went to live at Zuñi, a number of other persons have lived at other pueblos, so that we know a good deal about them now.
From American Indians by Starr, Frederick
Friar Marcos hastened after him, and reached the border of the Zuñi pueblos in western New Mexico, where he learned that Stephen had been killed.
From The Colonization of North America 1492-1783 by Bolton, Herbert Eugene
One of the four survivors of the ill-starred expedition of De Narvaez in 1527 was the Negro Estevanico, to whom belongs the credit of the discovery of the Zuñi Indians and of New Mexico.
From Your Negro Neighbor by Brawley, Benjamin Griffith
The Zuñi child spends his early days in a cradle.
From Indian Stories Retold From St. Nicholas by Various
The Zunis rained stones down on the invaders; one well-aimed boulder struck Coronado’s helmet.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 28, 2026
Coronado survived the fight with the Zunis at Hawikku.
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
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.
