Malaysia
name ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A country in Southeast Asia. Capital: Kuala Lumpur.
- 2 The Malay Archipelago. obsolete
"For the purpose of topographical description, Malaysia may be divided into six groups of islands, namely — 1. Sumatra, and the smaller islands adjacent ; 2. The long chain of islands which extends east and west from the Strait of Sunda to New Guinea, including Java, Madura, Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Comobo, Flares, Jindana or Sandelwood, Adenar, Solor, Lomblem, Pantar, Ombay, Timor, Semao, Rotte, Savu, Cambi, Wetter, Serwatty, Babba, Timorlaut, &c. ; 3. The Banda and Molucca Islands ; 4. Celebes and the smaller adjacent islands; 5. Borneo and adjacent islands; 6. The Philippine Islands."
Example
More examples"Malaysia came into existence in 1957."
Etymology
Etymology tree Malay Melayuder. English Malay English Malays Latin -iader. English -ia English Malaysia From Malays + -ia, amended from the previous form, Malaya. The ⟨-s⟩ was added to honour the inclusion of Singapore, Sarawak and North Borneo (Sabah) with Malaya in the formation of The Federation of Malaysia.
Related phrases
More for "malaysia"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.