Sunni
//ˈsʊni// adj, name, noun
adj, name, noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A follower of Sunni Islam.
- 2 one of the two main branches of orthodox Islam wordnet
- 3 a member of the branch of Islam that accepts the first four caliphs as rightful successors to Muhammad wordnet
Adjective
- 1 Belonging or relating to the branch of Islam based on the Qur'an, the Kutub al-Sittah (the hadiths which record the Sunnah) and that places emphasis on the Sahabah.
"I therefore strongly advocate the formation of a local capital but not at Hillah, which is too Sunni and near Baghdad"
Proper Noun
- 1 Ellipsis of Sunni Islam. abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis
"In Islam, Sunni is a more triumphant version of the faith than Shia, which stresses the importance of suffering, following the founder Ali, who was persecuted."
Example
More examples"Although Iran is nowadays known for being a stronghold of Shia Islam, most Persian Muslims were Sunni until the XVth century."
Etymology
From Arabic سُنِّيّ (sunniyy), from سُنَّة (sunna, “Sunna”) + ـِيّ (-iyy). By surface analysis, Sunna + -i.
Related phrases
More for "sunni"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.