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Sunni

American  
[soon-ee] / ˈsʊn i /

noun

Islam.

  1. Also called Sunnite.  a member of one of the two great religious divisions of Islam, regarding the first four caliphs as legitimate successors of Muhammad and stressing the importance of Sunna as a basis for law.

  2. (used with a plural verb) the Sunni Muslims.

Sunni British  
/ ˈsʌnɪ /

noun

  1. one of the two main branches of orthodox Islam (the other being the Shiah), consisting of those who acknowledge the authority of the Sunna

  2. another term for Sunnite

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

  • Sunnism noun

Etymology

Origin of Sunni

1620–30; < Arabic sunnī, derivative of sunnah Sunna

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.