English

Adjective

Sunni ‎(comparative more Sunni, superlative most Sunni)

1. Belonging or relating to 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.

   Are all of your family members Sunnis?

   • 1919, H. E. Wingate, Alan de Lacy Rush, Jane Priestland year=2001, editor, Records of Iraq, 1914-1966, volume 2, page 181:

     I therefore strongly advocate the formation of a local capital but not at Hillah, which is too Sunni and near Baghdad

   • 1992, Bruce Lincoln, Discourse and the Construction of Society, page 36:

     members […] came to view themselves collectively as the righteous descendants of Husayn confronting an evil and fundamentally alien ruler: a shah more Zoroastrian than Muslim, more Sunni than Shi'i, more Arab than Iranian, more Yazid than Husayn.

   • 2005, Alİ Çarkoğlu, Barry M. Rubin, Religion And Politics In Turkey, page 124:

     When we compare the data in these registers with findings presented above, in fact, Sivas appears more "Sunni" than the Balkan-Anatolian average of 1695.

   • 2007, Iraq’s New Political Map, page 16:

     After the formation of Tawafuq and under the impetus of growing Sunni extremism, it became more Sunni in orientation.

   • 2008, Charles H. Ferguson, No End in Sight: Iraq's Descent Into Chaos, page 357:

     Omar is a very Sunni name. Although some Shiites name [their sons] Omar, but not to the extent we say it's a Shiite name. It's a very Sunni name in the Islamic history.

   • 2010, Lee Smith, The Strong Horse: Power, Politics, and the Clash of Arab Civilizations, page 41:

     In keeping with the status-anxietyridden logic of the convert, many of the minorities became more Sunni than the Sunnis themselves

   • 2012, Eamon Murphy, The Making of Terrorism in Pakistan: Historical and social roots ..., page 98:

     Many Shias who had become more Sunni in their religious practices reverted back to their original sect.

Coordinate terms

• Shia

Translations

Noun

Sunni ‎(countable and uncountable, plural Sunnis)

1. (countable) A follower of Sunnism.
2. (uncountable) Sunni Islam.
   • 1998, Geert H. Hofstede, Masculinity and Femininity: The Taboo Dimension of National Cultures, page 205:

     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.

   • 2009, Central Intelligence Agency, CIA World Factbook 2010, page xxviii:

     Sunni has four schools of Islamic doctrine and law — Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, and Hanbali — which uniquely interpret the Hadith, or recorded oral traditions of Muhammad.

   • (Can we date this quote?), John Richard Thackrah - 2008, Routledge Companion to Military Conflict since 1945, page 129:

     Sunni is the mainstream religion, based in Mecca, and is generally more moderate.

Synonyms

• (person): Sunnite; Bukharist (less common), Hadithist (less common); Bakri (offensive); Sunnist (political); Nasibi (offensive)

Hypernyms

• (person): Muslim

Coordinate terms

• Shia, Sufi, Ahle Quran, Ahmadi, 5 percenter, Quranist, Mu'tazila, Ibadi, Nation of Islam, Mahdavi, Moorish Scientist, ghair muqallid, Muwahhid

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• Shi'a
• Sunnism
• Ahle Hadith

Finnish

Noun

sunni

1. A Sunni (person)

Declension

Synonyms

• sunnilainen

Related terms

• sunnilaisuus

Anagrams

• nisun, sinun

Greenlandic

Affix

sunni

1. the smell of something.

   e.g. inussunni

   The smell of a human being