Pontianak

name, noun

name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A female vampiric ghost in Malaysian and Indonesian mythology, said to be the spirit of a woman who died while pregnant. countable

    "One of the most fearsome creatures of Malay folklore is the pontianak."

  2. 2
    Alternative form of pontianac (“fossil resin”). alt-of, alternative, countable, uncountable
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    The capital and largest city of West Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Synonyms

All synonyms
breskdead borneofluviagambriagutta jelutongjelutong

Example

More examples

"One of the most fearsome creatures of Malay folklore is the pontianak."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Malay puntianak.

Etymology 2

From Indonesian Pontianak, named for the pontianaks which were popularly thought to have once inhabited the site.

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