Indigenous Meaning
/ɪnˈdɪdʒɪnəs/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjNative to a land, especially before colonization.
adjNative to a land, especially before colonization., 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.
Sentence Examples
Colonists often take a shine to indigenous women.
His love for indigenous Mexican art became his downfall.
The museum showcases the unique art of the indigenous peoples.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ plants of the region evolved there for thousands of years.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The museum has a large collection of art created by the ____ peoples of the Amazon rainforest.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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:
"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:
"Berlin is unique in being home to numerous East German converts to Islam who belong to the same German-speaking Muslim communities as West German converts. […] I attempt in this book to give a good sense of the diversity of contemporary indigenous Sunni Muslims in Germany, while pointing to commonalities and differences."
— 2015, Esra Özyürek, Being German, Becoming Muslim: Race, Religion, and Conversion in the New Europe, Princeton University Press, page 23:
"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 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:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ plants of the region evolved there for thousands of years.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The museum has a large collection of art created by the ____ peoples of the Amazon rainforest.