Word.ws English Dictionary

Indo-European

/ˌɪndəʊˌjʊəɹəˈpiːən/

Indo-European proper noun: a major language family which includes many of the native languages of Europe, Western Asia and India, with notable Indic, Iranian and European sub-branches.

Proper noun

Indo-European

  1. A major language family which includes many of the native languages of Europe, Western Asia and India, with notable Indic, Iranian and European sub-branches.
  2. Proto-Indo-European: the hypothetical parent language of the Indo-European language family.
    Synonyms:
    Indo-Germanic

Noun

Indo-European (plural Indo-Europeans)

  1. A member of the original ethnolinguistic group hypothesized to have spoken Proto-Indo-European and thus to have been the ancestor for most of India and Western Eurasia.
    • Two theories of the origins of the Indo-Europeans currently compete. M. Gimbutas believes that early Indo-Europeans entered southeastern Europe from the Pontic Steppes starting ca. 4500 B.C. and spread from there. C. Renfrew equates early Indo-Europeans with early farmers who entered southeastern...1992, R.R. Sokal, N.L. Oden, B.A. Thomson, “Origins of the Indo-Europeans: genetic evidence”, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, volume 89, →DOI, →PMID
    • Thus, although at least one term for ‘alder’ can be reconstructed to PIE, the wide distribution of this tree prevents it from being diagnostic of the earlier location of the Indo-Europeans.1997, J. P. Mallory, Douglas Q. Adams, “ALDER”, in Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, London, Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, →ISBN, page 12
  2. A speaker of any Indo-European language (though especially an ancient one), or a member of an Indo-European culture, who is regarded as a continuation of the Proto-Indo-Europeans in terms of language, ancestry, or cultural affinity.
    • To the same direction points a recent revelation made by Professor Henning who identifies the Gutians or Kutians and Tukres of the ancient Near East that occur in the cuneiform inscriptions of the end of the 3rd millennium B.C. with historical Kuchi-Tocharians, this being the earliest appearance of...1988, Thomas V. Gamkrelidze, “On the problem of an Asiatic original homeland of the Proto-Indo-Europeans”, in T.L. Markey and John A.C. Greppin, editors, When Worlds Collide: The Indo-Europeans and...
    • We Indo-Europeans are crazy about three! We see the world as earth, sky, water. We see things as having a beginning, a middle, and an end. Do you want a third example? Sure you do—you're Indo-European!2015 December 18, Mark Damen, “The Indo-European Dual”, in TEDxUSU (video)
  3. (rare) A European living in India or the Indies.
    • The sale of looted items persisted for a month, and quick profits were made by burghers and Indo-Europeans.2020, Sujit Sivasandaram, Waves Across the South, William Collins, published 2021, page 236
  4. (broadly, uncommon) A person of mixed European and Indian or Indonesian ancestry.

Adjective

Indo-European (comparative more Indo-European, superlative most Indo-European)

  1. Of or relating to the family of languages originally spoken in Europe and Western Asia.
    • Of the great Indo-European family of languages the general principal was also that of one name for each individual[…]1945, E[lizabeth] G[idley] Withycombe, “Introduction”, in The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page xi
  2. Of or relating to the hypothetical parent language of the Indo-European language family.
  3. Of or relating to the hypothetical group of peoples that spread early Indo-European languages.
    • As there is no evidence for Indo-European apiculture, we have to reckon with foreign origin for κηρός […].2010, Robert S. P. Beekes, “κηρός”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), volume I, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston...
  4. (broadly, uncommon) Of or relating to persons of mixed European and Indian or Indonesian ancestry.

Indo-European meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Arabic

Indo-European in Hindi

language family
भारोपीय bhāropīya, हिन्द-यूरोपीय hind-yūropīya
proto-language
आदिम-भारोपीय ādim-bhāropīya, आदिम-हिन्द-यूरोपीय ādim-hind-yūropīya
member of Proto-Indo-European ethnolinguistic group
हिन्द-यूरोपीय hind-yūropīya, भारोपीय bhāropīya
of or relating to languages originally spoken in Europe and Western Asia
भारत-यूरोपीय bhārat-yūropīya, भारोपीय bhāropīya, हिंद-यूरोपीय hind-yūropīya

Indo-European in Tamil

இந்தோ ஐரோப்பிய

Indo-European in Urdu

language family
ہِنْد یُورَپِی hind-yūrapī
proto-language
اَوَّلِی ہِنْد یُورَپِی avvalī-hind-yūrapī
member of Proto-Indo-European ethnolinguistic group
ہند یورپی hind yorapī

Indo-European in Arabic

language family
هِنْدُوأُورُوبِّيَّة hindūʔūrūbbiyya
of or relating to languages originally spoken in Europe and Western Asia
هِنْدِيّ-أُورُوبِيّ hindiyy-ʔurūbiyy
More languagesFewer languages
Indo-European in Malay
Bahasa Indo-Eropah
Indo-European in Indonesian
Rumpun bahasa Indo-Eropa, Rumpun bahasa India-Eropa
Indo-European in Persian
هندواروپایی hendu-orupâyi

Examples of Indo-European in a sentence

  • Two theories of the origins of the Indo-Europeans currently compete.1992, R.R. Sokal, N.L. Oden, B.A. Thomson, “Origins of the Indo-Europeans: genetic evidence”, in Proceedings of the National Academy of...
  • Henning, the first Indo-Europeans in history, "Society and History." […]).1988, Thomas V. Gamkrelidze, “On the problem of an Asiatic original homeland of the Proto-Indo-Europeans”, in T.L. Markey and John A.C....

Synonyms of Indo-European

Forms of Indo-European

Proper noun
alternative formIndoeuropean
alternative initialismIE
alternative initialismIE.
Noun
pluralIndo-Europeans
Adjective
comparativemore Indo-European
superlativemost Indo-European

Origin of Indo-European

Coined by English polymath Thomas Young in 1813, from Indo- + European, relating to the geographical extremes in India and Europe (which was valid before the discovery of Tocharian languages in the early 20th century).

Words formed from Indo-European

Phrases with Indo-European

Questions about Indo-European

What does Indo-European mean?
Indo-European means a major language family which includes many of the native languages of Europe, Western Asia and India, with notable Indic, Iranian and European sub-branches.
What is Indo-European in Hindi?
Indo-European in Hindi is भारोपीय (bhāropīya), हिन्द-यूरोपीय (hind-yūropīya), आदिम-भारोपीय (ādim-bhāropīya). See Indo-European meaning in Hindi.
How do you use Indo-European in a sentence?
Two theories of the origins of the Indo-Europeans currently compete.
What part of speech is Indo-European?
Indo-European can be a proper noun, a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce Indo-European?
Indo-European is pronounced /ˌɪndəʊˌjʊəɹəˈpiːən/.

Words near Indo-European in the dictionary

  1. Indo-Briton
  2. Indo-Britons
  3. Indo-Canadian
  4. Indo-China
  5. Indo-Chinese
  6. Indo-European
  7. Indo-European studies
  8. Indo-Europeanism
  9. Indo-Europeanist
  10. Indo-Europeanists
  11. Indo-Europeanization

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Indo-European (page history and authors); indo-european (Tamil 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:

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

Cite this entry: “Indo-European.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/indo-european. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.