ethnic

UK/ˈɛθ.nɪk/US/ˈɛθ.nɪk/

adjectiveB2+Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,303 of 15,258mostly written

Ethnic means to do with a people sharing descent and culture. An ethnic group, ethnic minority, ethnic identity.

It covers language, custom and shared ancestry together, which is what separates it from race, and the two are constantly confused. Used alone of food or clothing it is a lazy word meaning foreign, and better writing names the actual place.

Definitions of ethnic

1adjectiveethnicTo do with a people sharing descent and culture.B2+
“The city is home to many ethnic groups, each with its own language and festivals.”

ethnic is a quality.

Where it comes from

Greek ethnikos means of a nation, from ethnos, a people. In Latin it came to mean heathen, that is, not of our people.

Proto-Indo-European
*dʰeh₁-
Latin
ethnicus
Middle English
ethnik
English, today
ethnic

Built from

ἔθνος · Ancient Greek — a company", later "a people or nation, heathens

From Middle English ethnik, from Latin ethnicus. From Middle English ethnik, from Latin ethnicus ("pagan", "heathen"), from Ancient Greek ἐθνικός (“of or for a nation, heathen”), from ἔθνος (“a company", later "a people or nation, heathens”). by surface analysis, ethno- + -ic.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

ethnic in the wild

In Tajikistan, since the 1939 Soviet census, the small Pamiri and Yaghnobi ethnic groups have been included as Tajiks.
Tajiks
In China, the term is used to refer to the Pamiri ethnic groups of Xinjiang, who speak the Eastern Iranian Pamiri languages.
Tajiks
An ethnic conflict is a conflict between two or more ethnic groups.
Ethnic conflict
While the source of the conflict may be political, social, economic or religious, the individuals in conflict must expressly fight for their ethnic group's position within society.
Ethnic conflict
As of 2010, there were an estimated 5.3 million ethnic Tatars in Russia.
Tatars

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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