Word.ws English Dictionary

dots, not feathers

dots, not feathers phrase: expresses that a person described as "Indian" is from the country of India, as opposed to being of Native American (American Indian) background.

Phrase

dots, not feathers

  1. (insult) Expresses that a person described as "Indian" is from the country of India, as opposed to being of Native American (American Indian) background.
    • Rishabh is Indian (dots, not feathers).

Origin of dots, not feathers

From the stereotypes that people from India wear the Hindu bindi (dot) on their forehead, while Native Americans wear feathered headpieces.

Questions about dots, not feathers

What does dots, not feathers mean?
Dots, not feathers means expresses that a person described as "Indian" is from the country of India, as opposed to being of Native American (American Indian) background.
What part of speech is dots, not feathers?
Dots, not feathers is a phrase.

Words near dots, not feathers in the dictionary

  1. dots and carries
  2. dots down
  3. dots per inch
  4. dots the i's
  5. dots the i's and crosses the t's
  6. dots, not feathers
  7. Dotsero
  8. dotsin
  9. dotson
  10. Dotsons
  11. Dott

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dots, not feathers (page history and authors). 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.

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