Ryukyu
//ˈɹjuːkjuː// name
name ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Proper Noun
- 1 A chain of islands in Japan roughly between Kyushu and Taiwan.
"White Butterflies in Japan.[...]Shortly after this I left Yokohama for the Ryukyu Islands, and next had my attention attracted by the "White" in the Bay of Kagoshima."
Example
More examples"During the 15th century, the Ryukyu Kingdom was a tributary state of Imperial China."
Etymology
From Japanese 琉球 (Ryūkyū), from Middle Chinese 流求 (MC ljuw gjuw), a Chinese exonym for the island kingdom, of unclear origin. Doublet of Liuqiu.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.