Navajo

noun

Na·​va·​jo ˈna-və-ˌhō  ˈnä- 

variants or less commonly Navaho

1

plural Navajo or Navajos also Navaho or Navahos : a member of an Indigenous people of northern New Mexico and Arizona and southern Utah

2

: the language of the Navajo people

Examples of Navajo in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In 2013: American daredevil Nik Wallenda became the first person to walk on a tightrope across the top of the Little Colorado River Gorge on Navajo Nation land near Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. —The Arizona Republic, 22 June 2024

President Biden later approved similar requests from the Navajo Nation and the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, and made available $3.46 billion in hazard mitigation funding for all areas that had received COVID disaster declarations. —Tribune News Service, Hartford Courant, 18 June 2024

White buffalo calves are sacred to a number of Native American tribes, including the Sioux, Cherokee, Navajo, Lakota and Dakota. —Will Sullivan, Smithsonian Magazine, 17 June 2024

This vibrant memoir recalls the author’s childhood on the traditional lands of the Quechan (Yuma) people on a reservation in California, and in a Navajo Nation border town in New Mexico. —The New Yorker, 12 June 2024

Word History

Etymology

Spanish (Apache de) Navajó, literally, Apache of Navajó, from Navajó, area occupied by Navajos, probably from Tewa (Pueblo Indian language of northern New Mexico) navahu·, literally, arroyo with planted fields

First Known Use

1808, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

Navajo

noun

Na·​va·​jo

variants also Navaho

ˈnav-ə-ˌhō  ˈnäv- 

plural Navajo or Navajos also Navaho or Navahos

: a member of an Indigenous people of northern New Mexico and Arizona