Word.ws English Dictionary

Malaya

/məˈleɪ.ə/

Malaya proper noun: a peninsula and geographic region of Southeast Asia constituting the southern part of the Malay Peninsula and several nearby islands, currently forming the western part of Malaysia; now known as West Malaysia or Peninsular Malaysia.

Proper noun

Malaya

  1. (historical) A peninsula and geographic region of Southeast Asia constituting the southern part of the Malay Peninsula and several nearby islands, currently forming the western part of Malaysia; now known as West Malaysia or Peninsular Malaysia.
  2. (historical) A group of former British colonies and protectorates in Southeast Asia, existing on the southern part of the Malay Peninsula from 1826 to 1957, excepting the period of Japanese occupation during World War II; in full, British Malaya.
  3. (historical) A former colony and later a former independent country in Southeast Asia, existing on the southern part of the Malay Peninsula from 1948 to 1963; independent from 1957 and merged in 1963 with the territories of East Malaysia, forming modern Malaysia; in full, Federation of Malaya.

Malaya meaning in Hindi and Malay

Malaya in Hindi

the Malay Peninsula
मलय malay

Malaya in Malay

the Malay Peninsula
Tanah Melayu

Origin of Malaya

From Malay + -ia, Latinization of Malay. Compare English Malaysia.

Words formed from Malaya

Questions about Malaya

What does Malaya mean?
Malaya means a peninsula and geographic region of Southeast Asia constituting the southern part of the Malay Peninsula and several nearby islands, currently forming the western part of Malaysia; now known as West Malaysia or Peninsular Malaysia.
What is Malaya in Hindi?
Malaya in Hindi is मलय (malay). See Malaya meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is Malaya?
Malaya is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Malaya?
Malaya is pronounced /məˈleɪ.ə/.

Words near Malaya in the dictionary

  1. Malay kisses
  2. Malay kite
  3. Malay kites
  4. Malay Peninsula
  5. Malay.
  6. Malaya
  7. malayaite
  8. Malayalam
  9. Malayalee
  10. Malayalees
  11. Malayali

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Malaya (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.

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

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