What does "austroasiatic" mean?

Of the Austroasiatic languages, a major language family spoken in parts of Southeast Asia, India and the Nicobar Islands.

How do you pronounce "austroasiatic"?

Pronounced //ˌɔːstɹəʊˌeɪʒiˈætɪk//.

//ˌɔːstɹəʊˌeɪʒiˈætɪk// adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Adjective

1
Of the Austroasiatic languages, a major language family spoken in parts of Southeast Asia, India and the Nicobar Islands.
2
Australasian.
"This haemoglobin variant emerged in an Austroasiatic people and subsequently diffused throughout southeast Asia and then to other places."

"I love Austroasiatic languages."

Borrowed from German Austroasiatisch, austroasiatisch, coined by Wilhelm Schmidt, from Latin auster (“south”) + German asiatisch (“Asian”).

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