indigenous
Syllables: in·dig·e·nousUK/ɪnˈdɪdʒɪnəs/US/ɪnˈdɪd͡ʒənəs/
indigenous adjective: native to a land, especially before colonization.
Adjective (1)
indigenous (not comparable)
- Native to a land, especially before colonization.
- The Aboriginals were indigenous to Victoria before the World War.
- Not only the Indian, but many indigenous insects, birds, and quadrupeds, welcomed the apple-tree to these shores.1862, Henry David Thoreau, Wild Apples: The History of the Apple Tree
- In particular, of or relating to a people (or their language or culture) that inhabited a region prior to the arrival of people of other cultures which became dominant (e.g., through colonialism), and which maintains a distinct culture.
- The Ainu are the indigenous ethnic group of Japan's Hokkaido Island.
- About 98 per cent of Taiwan's inhabitants are Han Chinese, a diverse mix of ethnic and linguistic groups, including Hakka, Cantonese and Fujianese, who came from China's southern coast. Taiwan's other two per cent are from one of the nine indigenous tribes, which are scattered throughout the island...2007 April, Julie Grundvig, “TAIWAN”, in The Asia Book: A Journey Through Every Country in the Continent, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 103, column 2
- Innate, inborn.
- She was a native and essential cook, as much as Aunt Chloe,—cooking being an indigenous talent of the African race.1851 June – 1852 April, Harriet Beecher Stowe, chapter 18, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), Boston, Mass.: John P[unchard] Jewett & Company...
- He had all the tricks of a newspaper boy indigenous in him.1883, George MacDonald, “Stephen Archer”, in Stephen Archer and Other Tales
- Synonyms:
- connatural
- Original to a geographical area.
- That style of pottery is indigenous to that region.
Adjective (2) capitalized: Indigenous
Indigenous (not comparable)
- Alternative letter-case form of indigenous (“native, relating to the native inhabitants of a land”).
- Many Indigenous people use the day not only to remember the suffering inflicted in the 1620s but also to point out the struggles that Indigenous people continue to face today in the form of, on top of so much else, violence against women and girls.2021 November 25, Brandon Tensley, “National Day of Mourning turns Thanksgiving into something more honest”, in CNN
indigenous meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali and Telugu
indigenous in Hindi
- स्वदेशी
indigenous in Marathi
- स्वदेशी
indigenous in Bengali
- আদিবাসী
indigenous in Telugu
- స్వదేశీ
More languagesFewer languages
- indigenous in Punjabi
- ਸਵਦੇਸ਼ੀ, ਦੇਸੀ
- indigenous in Gujarati
- સ્વદેશી
- indigenous in Odia
- ସ୍ୱଦେଶୀ
- indigenous in Nepali
- स्वदेशी
- indigenous in Tagalog
- katutubo
- indigenous in Arabic
- أَصْلِيّ ʔaṣliyy
- indigenous in Indonesian
- inlander, pribumi, masyarakat adat
- indigenous in Persian
- بومی bumi
Examples of indigenous in a sentence
- Horses, like camels, had once been indigenous to Latin America but had become extinct.1997, Eduardo Galeano, Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, Monthly Review Press, page 17:
- Taiwan's other two per cent are from one of the nine indigenous tribes, which are scattered throughout the island but largely concentrated along the east coast and in the Central Mountain Range.2007 April, Julie Grundvig, “TAIWAN”, in The Asia Book: A Journey Through Every Country in the Continent, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 103, column 2:
- The team auctioned off the right to name the new species to publicize the find and raise awareness and funds for the indigenous Lahu people of northern Thailand, a group that Sippawat is part of.2023 September 26, Hafsa Khalil, “Electric blue tarantula species discovered in Thailand”, in CNN:
Synonyms of indigenous
Origin of indigenous
Borrowed from Late Latin indigenus (“native, born in a country”), from indi- (indu-), an old derivative of in (“in”), gen- the root of gignō (“give birth to”), and English -ous. Compare indigene, Ancient Greek ἐνδογενής (endogenḗs, “born in the house”), and the separately formed piecewise doublet endogenous. Unrelated to Indian.
Words formed from indigenous
Phrases with indigenous
Words that rhyme with indigenous
Questions about indigenous
- What does indigenous mean?
- Indigenous means native to a land, especially before colonization.
- What is indigenous in Hindi?
- Indigenous in Hindi is स्वदेशी. See Indigenous meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use indigenous in a sentence?
- Horses, like camels, had once been indigenous to Latin America but had become extinct.
- What part of speech is indigenous?
- Indigenous is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce indigenous?
- Indigenous is pronounced /ɪnˈdɪdʒɪnəs/ (UK).
Words near indigenous in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: indigenous (page history and authors); Indigenous (page history and authors); indigenous (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); indigenous (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); indigenous (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); indigenous (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); indigenous (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); indigenous (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); indigenous (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); indigenous (Nepali, 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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-indigenous.ogg.
Cite this entry: “indigenous.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/indigenous. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.