Sinhala

//ˈsɪnhələ// name, noun

name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Synonym of Sinhalese (“language”). uncountable
  2. 2
    the Indic language spoken by the people of Sri Lanka wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    of or relating to the Sinhalese languages wordnet
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    The island of Sri Lanka. obsolete
  2. 2
    The kingdom in the island of Sri Lanka mentioned in the Mahabharata.

Synonyms

All synonyms
sinhalesesinhalesesinghalesesinghalesesinghalese languagesinhala language

Example

More examples

"My dream is to study Sinhala in Kotte."

Etymology

Borrowed from Sinhalese සිංහල (siṁhala), itself borrowed from Sanskrit सिंहल (siṃhala, literally “lionlike”), from सिंह (siṃhá, “lion”) + -ल (-la), recorded as the name of the island of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) from about the 10th to 12th century, but presumably older, as it is also the source of the name Ceylon in western geographic tradition. The name is sometimes glossed as "abode of lions", referring to a supposed former abundance of lions on the island ( The Asiatic Journal 20 (1836), p. 30). Doublet of Ceylon and Elu.

Related phrases

sri lanka

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