Maluku

name

name ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A province of Indonesia. Capital: Ambon.

    "Muksin specifically mentioned 11 extinct indigenous languages, such as Tandia and Mawes in West Papua and Papua, along with Kajeli, Piru, Moksela, Palumata, Ternateno, Hukumina, Hoti, Serua, and Nila in different areas of Maluku."

  2. 2
    Synonym of Moluccas.

Synonyms

All synonyms
moluccas

Example

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"Muksin specifically mentioned 11 extinct indigenous languages, such as Tandia and Mawes in West Papua and Papua, along with Kajeli, Piru, Moksela, Palumata, Ternateno, Hukumina, Hoti, Serua, and Nila in different areas of Maluku."

Etymology

The islands are said to have been named Arabic جَزِيرَات المَلِك (jazīrāt al-malik, literally “king islands”) by Arab merchants. However, since the name itself has been mentioned in a 14th-century Majapahit eulogy, Nagarakretagama, that predates the arrival of Islam in Maluku at the late fifteenth century, other sources claim that the name comes from a local language with the meaning "the head of a bull" or "the head of something large".

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