Arya

name, noun

name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An Indo-Iranian, an Aryan.

    "The Aryas gradually spread themselves over the plain of the Ganges. After a time, the whole country between the Himalayas and the Vindhya Mountains was called Aryavarta, the abode of the Aryas."

  2. 2
    A follower of Arya Samaj.

    "The Brahmos are chiefly in Bengal, the Aryas in the North-West and the Punjab."

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A male given name from Sanskrit.
  2. 2
    A female given name from Sanskrit.

    "Arya Nielsen, a senior clinical faculty member at our Institute, has also demonstrated this in her excellent work on surface stimulation […]"

  3. 3
    A surname.
  4. 4
    A surname.

    "For quotations using this term, see Citations:Arya."

Example

More examples

"The Aryas gradually spread themselves over the plain of the Ganges. After a time, the whole country between the Himalayas and the Vindhya Mountains was called Aryavarta, the abode of the Aryas."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Sanskrit आर्य (ā́rya, “noble, respectable”).

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Sanskrit आर्या (āryā), feminine of आर्य (ā́rya, “noble, respectable”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.