1. A group of vernacular Indic dialects spoken in northern India.
2. The literary and official language of northern India that is based on these dialects. It is written in Devanagari and uses Sanskrit as a resource language.

[Hindi Hindī, from Hind, India, from Persian, from Old Persian Hinduš, Sind, from Sanskrit sindhuḥ, river.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.