indigenous
adjective
Simple meaning
Born or originating in, native to a land or region.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihndijuhnuhsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪnˈdɪdʒənəs
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Born or originating in, native to a land or region, especially before an intrusion.
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.
Alternative letter-case form of indigenous ("native, relating to the native inhabitants of a land").
Innate, inborn.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Born or originating in, native to a land or region, especially before an intrusion.
Used this way, indigenous is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
Share your sentence
Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Particular
Tap the highlighted word to open its own entry.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A language that originated in a specified place and was not brought to that place from elsewhere.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “indigenous” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.
Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.