Word.ws English Dictionary

Austronesian

/ˌɔːs.tɹoʊˈniː.ʒən/

Austronesian adjective: pertaining to the Austronesian language family.

Adjective

Austronesian (comparative more Austronesian, superlative most Austronesian)

  1. Pertaining to the Austronesian language family.
    • an Austronesian language
  2. Of or pertaining to Austronesia.
    • Taitung County, with seven Indigenous peoples of Austronesian descent -- Amis, Paiwan, Bunun, Rukai, Pinuyumayan (also known as the Puyuma), Yami (also known as the Tao), and Kavalan -- is the most diverse region in Taiwan in terms of Austronesian culture, offering students a chance to apply their...2022 August 6, Tyson Lu, Sean Lin, “Taitung university launches doctoral program on Austronesian studies”, in Focus Taiwan, archived from the original on 06 Aug 2022, Culture

Noun

Austronesian (plural Austronesians)

  1. A speaker of an Austronesian language, especially a member of the ancient maritime culture that spread Austronesian languages across the Pacific from Taiwan.

Austronesian meaning in Tagalog and Malay

Austronesian in Tagalog

of or pertaining to Austronesia
Austronesian

Austronesian in Malay

of or pertaining to Austronesia
Austronesia

Forms of Austronesian

Adjective
comparativemore Austronesian
superlativemost Austronesian
Noun
pluralAustronesians

Origin of Austronesian

Borrowed from German Austronesisch; coined by Wilhelm Schmidt. From Latin austro- (“southern”) + Ancient Greek νῆσος (nêsos, “island”) + -ian.

Words formed from Austronesian

Questions about Austronesian

What does Austronesian mean?
Austronesian means pertaining to the Austronesian language family.
What is Austronesian in Tagalog?
Austronesian in Tagalog is Austronesian. See Austronesian meaning in Tagalog.
What part of speech is Austronesian?
Austronesian can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce Austronesian?
Austronesian is pronounced /ˌɔːs.tɹoʊˈniː.ʒən/.

Words near Austronesian in the dictionary

  1. austrognathiid
  2. austromancy
  3. Austromarxism
  4. Austromarxist
  5. Austronesia
  6. Austronesian
  7. Austronesianist
  8. Austronesianists
  9. Austronesians
  10. Austrophil
  11. Austrophile

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Austronesian (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Sumxr-Austronesian.wav.

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