Mapuche

noun

Ma·​pu·​che mə-ˈpü-chē 

1

plural Mapuche or Mapuches : a member of an Indigenous people of southern Chile and Argentina

2

: the Araucanian language of the Mapuche

Examples of Mapuche in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The horrors are bounteous, the narrative a bit disjointed; the Indigenous people, along with Segundo, who is half Mapuche, say little or are largely silent. —Carolina A. Miranda, Los Angeles Times, 27 Jan. 2024

Weaving together experimental rock with the evocative sounds of the Mapuche tribe and their Mapudugun chants — alongside over 1,000 pitches of whale vocalization — ECDYSIS unveils itself as a captivating and meditative odyssey. —Isabela Raygoza, Billboard, 27 Dec. 2023

As the film begins, Gallardo Vásquez provides a brief yet vivid primer on Mapuche culture and trepidatiously steps out of their comfort zone and into a divine set of days filled with rituals that mingle alongside rural life in the south of Chile. —Holly Jones, Variety, 24 Aug. 2023

While going through an archive in the city of Berlin, ayoung Mapuche academic unearths the testimonies of Mapuche prisoners who were expelled from their territories during the military invasions of Argentina and Chile. —Anna Marie De La Fuente, Variety, 16 May 2023

In La Araucania, the heartland of the indigenous Mapuche people, nearly 74% voted against the document. —The Editorial Board, WSJ, 5 Sep. 2022

The tree's large pine nuts are a favorite food of austral parakeets as well as the Indigenous Mapuche people of Chile and Argentina -- and both could help the evergreens survive. —Ashley Strickland, CNN, 20 Aug. 2022

But the Mapuche—afflicted by political marginalization, endemic poverty, and land grabs by outsiders—have remained a restive social force. —Jon Lee Anderson, The New Yorker, 6 June 2022

But the lands where those trees grow were taken from an indigenous group known as the Mapuche. —Eduardo Thomson, Bloomberg.com, 15 Oct. 2020

Word History

Etymology

Mapuche mapuče, a self-designation, from mapu land + če people

First Known Use

1855, in the meaning defined at sense 1