Indian Definition & Meaning

American

British

Sensitive Note

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Examples

Synonyms Indian American [in-dee-uhn] / ˈɪn di ən /

noun

1. Also called American Indian, Amerind, Amerindian, Native American. a member of any of the aboriginal peoples of the Americas, especially of subarctic North America, excluding the Inuit, Yupik, and Aleut.

2. any of the Indigenous languages of the American Indians. Ind

3. a member of any of the peoples native to or inhabiting India or the East Indies.

4. a citizen of the Republic of India.

5. Slang. a person who performs a required task or carries out the instructions of superiors.

   We have too many chiefs and not enough Indians.

6. Astronomy. the constellation Indus.

adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of the American Indians or their languages.

2. of, relating to, or characteristic of India or the East Indies.

3. made of Indian corn.

   Indian meal.

4. Zoogeography. oriental.

5. Phytogeography. belonging or pertaining to a geographical division comprising India south of the Himalayas, and Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Indian British / ˈɪndɪən /

noun

1. a native, citizen, or inhabitant of the Republic of India

2. old-fashioned a Native American

3. (not in scholarly usage) any of the languages of Native Americans

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of India, its inhabitants, or any of their languages

2. (Not in scholarly usage) of, relating to, or characteristic of Native Americans or any of their languages

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Sensitive Note

Because Christopher Columbus mistakenly believed that the Caribbean island on which he had landed was the subcontinent of India, he called the inhabitants Indians. Eventually, that name was applied to almost all the Indigenous, non-European inhabitants of North and South America. In modern times Indian may refer to an inhabitant of the subcontinent of India or of the East Indies, to a citizen of the Republic of India, or to a member of an aboriginal American people. However, the term Indian is not applied to the Inuit, Yupik, and Aleut of Arctic North America. In the 18th century the term American Indian came to be used for the aboriginal inhabitants of the United States and Canada; it now includes the aboriginal peoples of South America as well. (When necessary, further distinctions are made with such terms as North American Indian and South American Indian. ) The terms Amerindian and Amerind subsequently developed in the attempt to reduce ambiguity. The most recent designation, especially in North America, is Native American. American Indians themselves tend to favor the terms Indian, American Indian, or a specific tribal name. They sometimes refer to themselves collectively as Indian peoples. All these terms appear in edited writing. Whether one or several will gain ascendancy over the others remains to be seen. See Eskimo. See also honest Injun, Indian giver.

Other Word Forms

• anti-Indian adjective
• non-Indian adjective
• pre-Indian noun
• pro-Indian adjective
• pseudo-Indian adjective
• trans-Indian adjective

Etymology

Origin of Indian

First recorded in 1350–1400; from Medieval Latin Indiānus; replacing Middle English Indien, from Old French, from Medieval Latin as above; India, -an

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.

Three years later, Newman had his solo debut at the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York, where he had recently curated an exhibition of Northwest Coast Indian art.

From The Wall Street Journal

Waves of Indians migrated to East Africa around that time, as teachers, clerks, merchants and indentured workers.

From The Wall Street Journal

In contrast to occasional patrols before 2020, the Indians now “believe that you have to have constant, regular, 24/7 monitoring of Chinese movement,” Rajagopalan added.

From The Wall Street Journal

On Christmas Day, they will have more than two dozen friends around for a traditional turkey dinner, followed on Boxing Day by an Indian banquet.

From BBC

Earlier in December, a U.S. special operations team boarded a ship in the Indian Ocean and seized military-related goods headed to Iran from China.

From The Wall Street Journal

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.