aboriginal
Syllables: ab·o·ri·gin·al/ˌæb.əˈɹɪd͡ʒ.ɪ.nəl/US/ˌæb.əˈɹɪd͡ʒ.ɪ.nəl/
aboriginal adjective: first according to historical or scientific records; original; indigenous; primitive. Also the alternative letter-case form of Aboriginal.
Adjective (1)
aboriginal (comparative more aboriginal, superlative most aboriginal)
- First according to historical or scientific records; original; indigenous; primitive.
- Green in the Church-yard, beautiful and green; / […] / And mantled o'er with aboriginal turf / And everlasting flowers.1814, William Wordsworth, The Excursion, Longman et al., page 277
- Tashtego's long, lean, sable hair, his high cheek bones, and black rounding eyes— […] all this sufficiently proclaimed him an inheritor of the unvitiated blood of those proud warrior hunters, who, in quest of the great New England moose, had scoured, bow in hand, the aboriginal forests of the main.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Knights and Squires”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 131
- Synonyms:
- ancient, autochthonous, earliest, endemic, first, indigenous, native, original, primeval, primitive
- Living in a land before colonization by foreigners.
- Where else but from Nantucket did those aboriginal whalemen, the Red-Men, first sally out in canoes to give chase to the Leviathan?1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 2
- Had a vast knowledge of the aboriginal tribes; was, in spite of his juniority, the greatest authority on the aboriginal Gullals.1889, Rudyard Kipling, “The Education of Otis Yeere”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 37
Noun (1)
aboriginal (plural aboriginals)
- An animal or plant native to a region.
- It may be welldoubted whether this frog is an aboriginal of these islands.1839, Charles Darwin, Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the Countries Visited During the Voyage of H. M. S. Beagle
Adjective (2) capitalized: Aboriginal
Aboriginal (not comparable)
- Of or pertaining to Australian Aboriginal peoples, or their languages.
- Academics who study Aboriginal languages are [...] contributing to Man’s search for knowledge, a search that interests most people even if they are not personally involved in it.1991, Barry J. Blake, Australian Aboriginal Languages: A General Introduction, page 75
- I am under no illusions about my mixed-race status; I know I am mixed-race, but with the Aboriginal population being only 3 per cent, with my family being survivors of genocide, I have made my decision.2021 November 7, Claire [G.] Coleman, “Not quite blak enough: ‘The people who think I am too white to be Aboriginal are all white’”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 03 Dec 2021
- Synonyms:
- Aborigine, Native, Native American, First Nations, First Peoples, Indian, Eskimo, Inuit
- Alternative letter-case form of aboriginal.
Noun (2) capitalized: Aboriginal
Aboriginal (plural Aboriginals)
- An Aboriginal inhabitant of Australia or other land.
- Alternative letter-case form of aboriginal.
Proper noun capitalized: Aboriginal
Aboriginal
- Any of the native languages spoken by Australian aborigines.
Also used as
aboriginal is also the alternative letter-case form of Aboriginal.
aboriginal meaning in Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada and Sanskrit
aboriginal in Hindi
- original; indigenous
- देशज deśaj
- animal or plant native to a region
- आदिवासी ādivāsī
aboriginal in Malayalam
- original; indigenous
- ആദിവാസി ādivāsi
aboriginal in Kannada
- ಮೂಲನಿವಾಸಿ
aboriginal in Sanskrit
- original; indigenous
- देशज deśaja
More languagesFewer languages
- aboriginal in Indonesian
- pribumi
- aboriginal in Vietnamese
- thổ dân
Examples of aboriginal in a sentence
- It mainly teaches aboriginal handicrafts which include cloth weaving, Polymer clay prin, and bead chains.
- That case established for the first time that aboriginal title had not been extinguished.
- Bunun Ear-shooting Festival (late April or early May) This is one of Taiwan's most popular aboriginal festivals.
Synonyms of aboriginal
8 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of aboriginal
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more aboriginal |
| superlative | most aboriginal |
| alternative form | aboriginal |
| Noun | |
| plural | aboriginals |
| plural | Aboriginals |
Origin of aboriginal
See Aboriginal.
From aborigine + -al, aborigine being from Latin ab origine (“from the beginning”).
Words formed from aboriginal
- Aboriginal English
- Aboriginalism
- Aboriginalist
- Aboriginality
- Aboriginal people
- Aboriginal peoples
- Aboriginal rights
- Aboriginal title
- aboriginally
- aboriginalness
- nonaboriginal
Phrases with aboriginal
Questions about aboriginal
- What does aboriginal mean?
- Aboriginal means first according to historical or scientific records; original; indigenous; primitive.
- What is aboriginal in Hindi?
- Aboriginal in Hindi is देशज (deśaj), आदिवासी (ādivāsī). See Aboriginal meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is aboriginal?
- Aboriginal can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce aboriginal?
- Aboriginal is pronounced /ˌæb.əˈɹɪd͡ʒ.ɪ.nəl/ (UK).
Words near aboriginal in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: aboriginal (page history and authors); Aboriginal (page history and authors); aboriginal (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-aboriginal.ogg.
Cite this entry: “aboriginal.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/aboriginal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.