Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An underground or partly underground chamber in a Pueblo village, used by the men especially for ceremonies or councils.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A sacred chamber, wholly or partly underground, in which many of the religious ceremonials of the Pueblo Indians are performed. Also
estufa .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A large chamber built under, or in, the houses of a Pueblo village, used as an assembly room in religious rites or as a men's dormitory. It is commonly lighted and entered from an opening in the roof.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A ceremonial underground chamber in a Pueblo village.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word kiva.
Examples
-
He made his friends its members, but he called the kiva his own.
-
He made his friends its members, but he called the kiva his own.
-
At the top of the stairs you turn right into the "kiva" -- the clubhouse of the 350 Cliff Dwellers.
Chicago Reader 2010
-
At the top of the stairs you turn right into the "kiva" -- the clubhouse of the 350 Cliff Dwellers.
Chicago Reader 2010
-
At the top of the stairs you turn right into the "kiva" -- the clubhouse of the 350 Cliff Dwellers.
Chicago Reader 2010
-
The kiva was a large circular pit three manheights deep.
Burning Tower Larry Niven 2005
-
The kiva was a large circular pit three manheights deep.
Burning Tower Larry Niven 2005
-
The roof of the kiva was the roof of the chamber that inclosed it.
-
At first a retaining wall was built immediately in front of the main kiva, which is now 5 feet high outside.
-
There is no reason to suppose that the kiva was a necessity in the ancient performance of the Tusayan ritual, and there are still performed many ceremonials as secret and as sacred as any others which occur in rooms used as dwellings or for the storage of corn.
Archeological Expedition to Arizona in 1895 Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1895-1896, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1898, pages 519-744 Jesse Walter Fewkes 1890
trivet commented on the word kiva
Underground chamber of the Pueblo Indian villages of the southwestern U.S., notable for the murals that decorate its walls.
A small hole in its floor, the sípapu, serves as the symbolic place of origin of the tribe. Though the kiva's primary purpose is for men's rituals and ceremonies, it is also used for political meetings or casual gatherings.
June 18, 2007
kamtsatka commented on the word kiva
Kiva is also the Finnish word for 'nice'.
November 9, 2008