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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

Indian.

Of or relating to India or its people; or (formerly) of the East Indies.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈɪn.dɪ.ən/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɪn.di.ən/General-American/ˈɪnɖ(ɪ)jən/India
  1. Of or relating to India or its people; or (formerly) of the East Indies.

  2. Eastern; Oriental.

    obsolete
  3. Of or relating to the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

    proscribed
  4. Made with Indian corn or maize.

    Canada · US · proscribed
    Indian bread
    Indian meal
  5. Designating any of various chess openings now characterised by black's attempt to control the board through knights and fianchettoed bishops rather than with a central pawn advance.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English Indien, from Anglo-Norman indien, Middle French indien, corresponding to Ind + -ian or India + -an. Applied to inhabitants of the Americas due to an early misconception that the Americas were the eastern end of Asia / the Indies (hence also the designation of Caribbean islands as the West Indies).

noun/ˈɪn.dɪ.ən/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɪn.di.ən/General-American/ˈɪnɖ(ɪ)jən/India
  1. A person from India.

    countable
  2. An American Indian, a member of one of the indigenous peoples of the Americas (generally excluding the Aleut, Inuit, Metis, and Yupik).

    countable · proscribed
  3. An indigenous inhabitant of Australia, New Zealand or the Pacific islands.

    countable · obsolete
  4. Ellipsis of Indian cuisine.

    abbreviation · alt-of · ellipsis · uncountable
    Have you ever tried Indian?
  5. Ellipsis of Indian meal (“meal consisting of Indian cuisine”).

    UK · abbreviation · alt-of · colloquial · countable · ellipsis
    We're going out tonight for an Indian.
  6. Ellipsis of Indian restaurant (“restaurant serving Indian cuisine”).

    UK · abbreviation · alt-of · colloquial · countable · ellipsis
    We're going down to the Indian for a curry—wanna join us?
  7. Ellipsis of Mardi Gras Indian.

    abbreviation · alt-of · countable · ellipsis
  8. A kind of marble (spherical toy) with colored bands on an opaque black base.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English Indien, from Anglo-Norman indien, Middle French indien, corresponding to Ind + -ian or India + -an. Applied to inhabitants of the Americas due to an early misconception that the Americas were the eastern end of Asia / the Indies (hence also the designation of Caribbean islands as the West Indies).

name/ˈɪn.dɪ.ən/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɪn.di.ən/General-American/ˈɪnɖ(ɪ)jən/India
  1. Any of the (unrelated) languages spoken by American Indians.

    nonstandard
  2. Any language spoken by natives of India, especially Hindi.

    nonstandard · rare
Where this word comes from

From Middle English Indien, from Anglo-Norman indien, Middle French indien, corresponding to Ind + -ian or India + -an. Applied to inhabitants of the Americas due to an early misconception that the Americas were the eastern end of Asia / the Indies (hence also the designation of Caribbean islands as the West Indies).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.