Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Ancestral Puebloan.
  • noun An Ancestral Puebloan.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any of a Native American people who once lived in cliff-dwellings in Utah and Colorado.
  • proper noun The language once spoken by these people.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a Native American who lived in what is now southern Colorado and Utah and northern Arizona and New Mexico and who built cliff dwellings

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Navajo anaasází, from anaa’ bizází, enemy's ancestors : anaa’, enemy + bizází, ancestors.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Navajo anaasází ("enemy ancestors, ancient enemy"), from anaaʼí ("enemy") + bizází ("their ancestors")

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Examples

  • Thanks to its near-perfect location a block from the Plaza and its seamless service, the Anasazi is an ideal home base.

    Head to Head Ann Abel 2010

  • As a result, the glory of Rome or the magesty of the Anasazi is probably cooler in my imagination than it looked in real life.

    More workplace asshattery and "Grey Gardens" wendigomountain 2008

  • (Apparently it finally registered on someone that using a term coined by the culture's bitter rivals -- Anasazi is a Navajo term for "ancient enemies" -- was not exactly appropriate.)

    The people of Frijoles Canyon ewillett 2008

  • "Anasazi" is a Navajo word best translated as "the ancient ones.

    Old Rice/New Rice....Old Beans/New Beans 2003

  • The Spaniards, on arriving in the area some 400 years ago, met the Pueblo people who live in New Mexico still, but before the Pueblos came the people long called the Anasazi, but now known simply as the Ancestral Pueblo people.

    The people of Frijoles Canyon ewillett 2008

  • Are you trying to tell me the Anasazi were the original Village People?

    HH Com 156 Miss Snark 2006

  • Are you trying to tell me the Anasazi were the original Village People?

    12/17/2006 - 12/24/2006 Miss Snark 2006

  • Are you trying to tell me the Anasazi were the original Village People?

    Archive 2006-12-17 Miss Snark 2006

  • It's called Anasazi soup and I will happily share the recipe.

    1999-11-18 01:07:53 nueces 1999

  • The Anasazi is a little more all around technical whereas the VS is for the steepness.

    unknown title 2009

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