Malayo-polynesian

//məˌleɪəʊˌpɒlɪˈniːʒən// name

name ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    the branch of the Austronesian languages spoken from Madagascar to the central Pacific wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    of or relating to the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian languages wordnet
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A subgroup of languages of the Austronesian language family, mostly dispersed around the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean.

Synonyms

All synonyms
languagepolynesian

Example

More examples

"I have been wishing to travel to French Polynesia, including Tahiti and Bora Bora. There was a phase in my life wherein I studied Malayo-Polynesian languages such as Samoan, Tahitian, Hawaiian, Indonesian, Ilocano, and so forth. I have a book collection of them. I do have Austronesian ancestry. Some researchers call it "Sundadont," whilst I have also "Sinodont" and "Eurodont" ancestries."

Etymology

From Malayo- + Polynesian.

Related phrases

Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian

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