Tamil

//θəˈmɪɹ// adj, name, noun

adj, name, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A person who originates from Tamil Nadu, India or Sri Lanka or has tamil origins.
  2. 2
    the Dravidian language spoken since prehistoric times by the Tamil in southern India and Sri Lanka wordnet
  3. 3
    a member of the mixed Dravidian and Caucasian people of southern India and Sri Lanka wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    Of or pertaining to the Tamil people, culture, or language. not-comparable

    "When I returned to the movie Ghilli, a Kollywood classic (Kollywood being the informal name for Tamil cinema) that I loved as a kid, I couldn’t help but question why the story continues romantically, without question, after the heroine is slapped by the supposed love of her life."

  2. 2
    Of the Tamil script. not-comparable
Adjective
  1. 1
    of or relating to a speaker of the Tamil language or the language itself wordnet
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A Dravidian language spoken in the state of Tamil Nadu, India and in Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia. uncountable

    "“I go only to return,” I said, because Tamil has no words for last goodbyes."

  2. 2
    the Tamil script. uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
tamil languagetamiliantamilian

Example

More examples

"Urdu and Punjabi are her native languages, but she speaks several others very well, including Tamil, Pashto, and Cantonese."

Etymology

Borrowed from Tamil தமிழ் (tamiḻ, “Tamil”); see that entry for theories.

Related phrases

Tamil EelamTamil NaduTamil Tigersri lankatamil nadu

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