variants or Uyghur or less commonly Uigur
plural Uighur or Uighurs or Uyghur or Uyghurs also Uigur or Uigurs
1
: a member of a Turkic people powerful in Mongolia and eastern Turkestan between the 8th and 12th centuries a.d. who constitute a majority of the population of Chinese Turkestan
2
: the Turkic language of the Uighurs
Uighur adjective
or Uyghur or less commonly Uigur

Examples of Uighur in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Farmers pick cotton on a farm on the outskirts of Hami in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China in September 26, 2010. — Paxton Honerkamp, CNBC, 9 June 2026 Rubio has also criticized Beijing for its treatment of the mostly Muslim Uighur minority in Xinjiang, in northwest China. — Brendan Cole, MSNBC Newsweek, 14 May 2026 The technology exists to detect whether a company’s supply chain includes sub-tier suppliers based in the Uighur region of China. — Steve Banker, Forbes, 8 Jan. 2025 One of my most memorable eating experiences was at a place called Dilara, an Uighur cuisine restaurant in Finsbury Park. — Orianna Rosa Royle, Fortune Europe, 1 Oct. 2024 For example, the government's use of the technology to monitor the Uighur population in Xinjiang province has been criticized as intrusive and repressive. — Zoltan Istvan, IEEE Spectrum, 28 Jan. 2020

Word History

Etymology

Uighur Uighur

First Known Use

1747, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of Uighur was in 1747

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Uighur.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Uighur. Accessed 26 Sep. 2026.

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