Austronesian

//ˌɔːs.tɹoʊˈniː.ʒən// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A speaker of an Austronesian language, especially a member of the ancient maritime culture that spread Austronesian languages across the Pacific from Taiwan.
  2. 2
    the family of languages spoken in Australia and Formosa and Malaysia and Polynesia wordnet
  3. 3
    a native or inhabitant of Austronesia wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    Pertaining to the Austronesian language family.

    "an Austronesian language"

  2. 2
    Of or pertaining to Austronesia.

    "Taitung County, with seven Indigenous peoples of Austronesian descent -- Amis, Paiwan, Bunun, Rukai, Pinuyumayan (also known as the Puyuma), Yami (also known as the Tao), and Kavalan -- is the most diverse region in Taiwan in terms of Austronesian culture, offering students a chance to apply their research to real-world scenarios and engage in intimate observations of how indigenous groups grapple with the challenges of modern times, Chen said."

Adjective
  1. 1
    of or relating to or characteristic of Austronesia or its people or culture wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
austronesian languagelanguage

Example

More examples

"The era of exploration and colonization of the Solar System lasted five thousand years, like the Austronesian Diaspora in the ancient Pacific."

Etymology

Borrowed from German Austronesisch; coined by Wilhelm Schmidt. From Latin austro- (“southern”) + Ancient Greek νῆσος (nêsos, “island”) + -ian.

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