Madagascar
/mædəˈɡæskə/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Northern England/madəˈɡaskə/
Madagascar proper noun: an island and country off the east coast of Africa. Official name: Republic of Madagascar. Capital: Antananarivo.
Proper noun
Madagascar
- An island and country off the east coast of Africa. Official name: Republic of Madagascar. Capital: Antananarivo.
- Malagasy, like many indigenous languages in the Global South, has few formal language resources. When Jagwar – born in Madagascar — discovered Wiktionary as a teenager, he saw an opportunity to correct this.2020 August 4, Cyrus Multhauf, “How a Malagasy Teenager Created the World’s Second-Largest Dictionary”, in NEEM Blog, archived from the original on 04 Mar 2021
Noun
Madagascar (plural Madagascars)
- A resident of Madagascar.
- Synonyms:
- Madagascan, Madagascarian, Malagasy
Madagascar meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
Madagascar in Hindi
- country in Southern Africa
- मेडागास्कर meḍāgāskar, मैडागास्कर maiḍāgāskar
Madagascar in Tamil
- country in Southern Africa
- மடகாஸ்கர் maṭakāskar, மடகஸ்கார் maṭakaskār
Madagascar in Urdu
- country in Southern Africa
- مڈغاسکر meḍāġāskar
Madagascar in Bengali
- country in Southern Africa
- মাদাগাস্কার madagaskar
More languagesFewer languages
- Madagascar in Kannada
- ಮಾಡಗಾಸ್ಕರ್
- Madagascar in Punjabi
- ਮਾਦਾਗਾਸਕਰ mādāgāskar
- Madagascar in Sinhala
- මැඩගස්කරය mæḍagaskaraya
- Madagascar in Assamese
- মাদাগাস্কাৰ madagaskar
- Madagascar in Tagalog
- Madagaskar
- Madagascar in Arabic
- مَدَغَشْقَر madaḡašqar
- Madagascar in Malay
- Madagaskar
- Madagascar in Persian
- ماداگاسکار mâdâgâskâr
- Madagascar in Thai
- มาดากัสการ์ maa-daa-gás-gâa
- Madagascar in Vietnamese
- Ma-đa-gát-xca
- Madagascar in Myanmar
- မဒါဂတ်စကား ma.dagatca.ka:
- Dhivehi
- މަޑަގަސްކަރަ maḍagaskara
Synonyms of Madagascar
Forms of Madagascar
| plural | Madagascars |
|---|
Origin of Madagascar
Borrowed from Middle French Madagascar, from Madageiscar, popularly reputed as a corrupted transliteration of Mogadishu by Marco Polo's misreading of Arabic. The maps of particular interest are that of al-Idrisi in the 12th century, who produced the Tabula Rogeriana, the most advanced world map at the time. The actual misconstrued term was Arabic جَزِيرَة المَالَائِيّ (jazīrat al-mālāʔiyy, “The Island of Mālāī”) listed alongside Arabic جَزِيرَة القَمَر (jazīrat al-qamar, “The Island of the Moon”) which lent its name to Comoros; Madagascar however likely being the original based on its dimensions. The map in question warps the direction of Africa's east coast to be parallel to the coast of southeast Asia, prompting a conflation of the regions furthest east and furthest south, in the reaches of Arab exploration. This perhaps makes the Island of Mālāī both representing Madagascar and an island in Indonesia, likely Sumatra, in close proximity to Malaysia. To conflate matters further, the populations of both regions are of Austronesian background, a fact pointed out by Arab explorers who identified Madagascar as colony of the former region. A second wave of Austronesians, including...
Words formed from Madagascar
Phrases with Madagascar
Questions about Madagascar
- What does Madagascar mean?
- Madagascar means an island and country off the east coast of Africa. Official name: Republic of Madagascar. Capital: Antananarivo.
- What is Madagascar in Hindi?
- Madagascar in Hindi is मेडागास्कर (meḍāgāskar), मैडागास्कर (maiḍāgāskar). See Madagascar meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is Madagascar?
- Madagascar can be a proper noun or a noun.
- How do you pronounce Madagascar?
- Madagascar is pronounced /mædəˈɡæskə/ (UK).
Words near Madagascar in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Madagascar (page history and authors); Madagascar (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Soundguys-Madagascar.wav.
Cite this entry: “Madagascar.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/madagascar. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.