Desi

//ˈdeɪ.si// adj, name, noun

adj, name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A member of the South Asian diaspora.

    "Desis from the United States have an accent; those from Canada, another."

  2. 2
    Alternative form of Desi. alt-of, alternative
  3. 3
    A particular variety of cultivated chickpea.

    "There are two types of chickpea, desi (small seeded, angular and coloured) and kabuli (large seeded, ram-shaped and beige coloured). No precise information is available about the division of the 11 million hectares under chickpea between desis and kabulis, but an approximation is that more than 85 per cent of the area is covered with the desis type and the rest with kabuli."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Of or pertaining to the culture, people, or products of South Asia; South Asian.
  2. 2
    Alternative form of Desi. alt-of, alternative
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    Acronym of Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument. abbreviation, acronym, alt-of

    "While combining data sets is tricky, and these are early results from DESI, the possible evidence that dark energy is not constant is the best news I have heard since cosmic acceleration was firmly established 20-plus years ago."

Synonyms

All synonyms
asianindianindian

Example

More examples

"Desis from the United States have an accent; those from Canada, another."

Etymology

Borrowed from Hindustani دیسی (desī) / देसी (desī).

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