Asian

UK/ˈeɪʒən/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/ˈæɪʒən/

Asian noun: a person from or with ancestry in East or Southeast Asia, occasionally South Asia.

Noun

Asian (plural Asians)

(Australia, Canada, New Zealand, US) A person from or with ancestry in East or Southeast Asia, occasionally South Asia.
- Hate crimes and attacks on Asians have captured the local news and the national attention since 2020, producing a stream of content that showed innocent people being attacked and belittled in never-ending variations on the same violent theme.2022 February 17, Eddie Kim, “Is the ‘Boba Liberal’ Really a Race Traitor?”, in MEL Magazine, archived from the original on 02 Jun 2022
Synonyms:

East Asian, Oriental, Oriental Asian, Chinese
(Kenya, South Africa, UK, Uganda) A person from or with ancestry in South Asia.
- We call upon you to be ready to take over from the non-citizens who are leaving the country. As you are aware, I, on Wednesday the 9th August, 1972, signed a Decree revoking with effect from that date, all entry permits and certificates of residence which had been granted to British citizens of...1972 August 12, Idi Amin Dada, Speeches by His Excellency the President General Idi Amin Dada, Message to the Nation on 12th/13th August, 1972, Address to Disrict Representatives, 29th August, 1972...
- It is not true that Asians were inadaptable in East Africa. Nearly all Indian men learned to speak English, and, by the second generation, both sexes had become fluently Anglophone, while continuing to use their native tongue (mostly Gujarati, Cutchi, Punjabi or Hindustani). Most Indians also...1981, Pierre van den Berghe, The Ethnic Phenomenon, page 152
A domestic cat of a breed similar to the Burmese.

Adjective

Asian (not comparable)

Of, relating to or from Asia.
- There are white, black, Asian and Chinese Britons, just as there are any number of different sorts of Americans.2015 June 4, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, “The beauty contest winner making Japan look at itself”, in BBC, archived from the original on 22 May 2020
- And some Asian countries are tightening their immigration laws. Japan reinforced its strict stance in January when a court upheld the country’s ban against dual citizenship, rejecting a lawsuit filed by Japanese citizens living in Europe.2021 March 15, Jessie Yeung, “These Asian countries are giving dual citizens an ultimatum on nationality – and loyalty”, in CNN, archived from the original on 19 Mar 2022
Synonyms:

Asiatic

Asian meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali

Asian in Hindi

person from Asia: एशियाई eśiyāī
person from or descended from people from the Indian sub-continent: एशियाई eśiyāī
person from or descended from people from east Asia: एशियाई eśiyāī
of, relating to or from Asia: एशियाई eśiyāī

Asian in Urdu

person from Asia: ایشِیائی eśiyāī
of, relating to or from Asia: ایشِیائی eśiyāī

Asian in Bengali

of, relating to or from Asia: এশিয়ান eśiẏan

More languagesFewer languages

Asian in Telugu: ఆసియను āsiyanu
Asian in Kannada: ಏಷ್ಯಾ ಖಂಡದವನು, ಏಷ್ಯಾ ಖಂಡದವಳು
Asian in Pashto: آسیايي āsyāyí
Asian in Tagalog: Asyano, Asyahin
Asian in Arabic: آسِيَوِيّ ʔāsiyawiyy, آسِيَوِيَّة ʔāsiyawiyya
Asian in Malay: Asia
Asian in Thai: คนเอเชีย kon ee-chiia, เอเชีย ee-chiia
Asian in Vietnamese: người châu Á, người Á châu, người Á Đông, châu Á
Asian in Myanmar: အာရှတိုက်သူ ahra.tuiksu, အာရှ ahra.

Examples of Asian in a sentence

It is not true that Asians were inadaptable in East Africa.1981, Pierre van den Berghe, The Ethnic Phenomenon, page 152:
If radio and television programmes are anything to go by, Asians in Britain get up early on a Sunday.1987 May, Paul Oliver, “Movie Mahal: Indian cinema on ITV Channel 4”, in Popular Music, →DOI, page 215:
I didn't tell my parents, but I flinched if an Asian-looking man came close.2013, Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala:

Synonyms of Asian

1 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Pakistani

All synonyms of Asian

Forms of Asian

plural	Asians

Origin of Asian

From Latin āsiānus. By surface analysis, Asia + -an. The modern North American and Australasian usage, referring to East and Southeast Asians collectively, seems to be a shortened form of "Asian American", a term whose origins activists and academics trace back to 1968 and University of California, Berkeley (UCLA) students Yuji Ichioka and Emma Gee, who, inspired by the Black Power Movement and the protests against the Vietnam War, founded the "Asian American Political Alliance" as a way to unite Japanese, Chinese, and Filipino American students on campus. It replaced the term "Mongoloid", but still continued the racial grouping of "Mongoloid". The usage in Britain and some of its former colonies such as South Africa, Kenya and Uganda, stems from South Asians historically forming the bulk of immigrants from the continent of Asia to these places. In the rest of the Anglosphere, the word "Asian" is sometimes, albeit less frequently, used to refer to South Asians and Central Asians, but rarely (if ever) to Near Easterners.

Words formed from Asian

Phrases with Asian

72 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with Asian

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about Asian

What does Asian mean?: Asian means a person from or with ancestry in East or Southeast Asia, occasionally South Asia.
What is Asian in Hindi?: Asian in Hindi is एशियाई (eśiyāī). See Asian meaning in Hindi.
How do you use Asian in a sentence?: It is not true that Asians were inadaptable in East Africa.
What part of speech is Asian?: Asian can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce Asian?: Asian is pronounced /ˈeɪʒən/ (UK).
What is the plural of Asian?: The plural of Asian is Asians.

Words near Asian in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: Asian (page history and authors); asian (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: EN-AU ck1 Asian.ogg.

Cite this entry: “Asian.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/asian. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.