Navajo

See also: navajo

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish navajo, from Tewa navahu (field adjoining an arroyo).

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈnæ.və.həʊ/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈnæ.və.hoʊ/, /ˈnɑ.və.hoʊ/, (contracted) /ˈnæ.voʊ/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Hyphenation: Na‧va‧jo

Noun

Navajo (plural Navajo or Navajos or Navajoes)

  1. A member of the Navajo people, currently the largest Native American tribe in North America.
    Synonym: (derogatory) Tavasuh
    • 2019 January 16, Eric Levenson, “Alfred Newman, one of the last remaining Navajo Code Talkers, dies at 94”, in CNN[1]:
      As a code talker, Newman was one of a group of Navajos who learned a secret, unbreakable language that was used to send information on tactics, troop movements and orders over the radio and telephone during WWII.

Derived terms

Translations

Proper noun

Navajo

  1. An Apachean (Southern Athabaskan) language of the Athabascan language family belonging to the Na-Dené phylum. It is spoken by 149,000 people in the American Southwest (Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado).
  2. An Amerindian people who traditionally speak the Navajo language.
    • 2019 January 16, Eric Levenson, “Alfred Newman, one of the last remaining Navajo Code Talkers, dies at 94”, in CNN[2]:
      One of the last remaining members of the Navajo Code Talkers, who used their difficult-to-learn language to form an indecipherable code that helped the Allies win World War II, has died.

Synonyms

language
people

Derived terms

  • Navajo Indian Reservation
  • Navajo Nation
  • Navajo People
  • Navajo Reservation
  • Navajo Tribal Nation
  • Navajo Tribe

Translations

See also

Further reading