Word.ws English Dictionary

Bislama

/ˈbɪʃləmɑː/US/ˈbisləmaː/

Bislama proper noun: a creole language spoken on the South Pacific island-nation of Vanuatu, derived from Indo-European (mainly from English) and Oceanic languages.

Proper noun

Bislama

  1. A creole language spoken on the South Pacific island-nation of Vanuatu, derived from Indo-European (mainly from English) and Oceanic languages.

Bislama meaning in Tagalog, Malay and Thai

Bislama in Tagalog

a creole spoken on the South Pacific island-nation of Vanuatu
Bislama

Bislama in Malay

a creole spoken on the South Pacific island-nation of Vanuatu
bahasa Bislama

Bislama in Thai

a creole spoken on the South Pacific island-nation of Vanuatu
ภาษาบิสลามา paasăa bìtlaamaa

Forms of Bislama

alternative formBichelamar
alternative form (dated)Beachlamar
alternative form (dated)Beach-la-Mar
alternative form (dated)Bichelama

Origin of Bislama

Borrowed from Bislama Bislama, from French bêche-de-mer (“sea cucumber”), referring to sea cucumbers (trepang) that were harvested and dried alongside sandalwood gathering in the mid-19th century. The pidgin that developed among local labourers, traders, and English-speaking overseers became known by the name of this trade item. The term evolved from referring to the commodity to the trade language itself.

Questions about Bislama

What does Bislama mean?
Bislama means a creole language spoken on the South Pacific island-nation of Vanuatu, derived from Indo-European (mainly from English) and Oceanic languages.
What is Bislama in Tagalog?
Bislama in Tagalog is Bislama. See Bislama meaning in Tagalog.
What part of speech is Bislama?
Bislama is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Bislama?
Bislama is pronounced /ˈbisləmaː/ (US).

Words near Bislama in the dictionary

  1. Biskup
  2. Biskupiec
  3. Biskups
  4. bislactone
  5. bislactones
  6. Bislama
  7. Bisley
  8. Bisley-with-Lypiatt
  9. Bisleys
  10. Bislig
  11. bisligand

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Bislama (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)-Vealhurl-Bislama.wav.

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