Word.ws English Dictionary

Papua

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Australia/ˈpaːpwə/

Papua proper noun: the southern part of what is now called Papua New Guinea, formerly administered as a separate territory to New Guinea.

Proper noun

Papua

  1. The southern part of what is now called Papua New Guinea, formerly administered as a separate territory to New Guinea.
  2. The western part of New Guinea, currently part of Indonesia.
  3. A province of Indonesia.
    • Muksin specifically mentioned 11 extinct indigenous languages, such as Tandia and Mawes in West Papua and Papua, along with Kajeli, Piru, Moksela, Palumata, Ternateno, Hukumina, Hoti, Serua, and Nila in different areas of Maluku.2024 March 8, Antara, “11 Indigenous Languages Declared Extinct: Education Ministry”, in Jakarta Globe

Noun

Papua (plural Papuas or Papua)

  1. (dated) A person indigenous to Papua.
    • The Papuas are so termed in the Malay language, from their extreme darkness, approaching to black.1841, The Colonial Magazine and Commercial-Maritime Journal, page 447
    • The Papua are more numerous in the Philippine Islands than anywhere else, with the exception of New Guinea.1856, The Quarterly Review of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, page 502

Papua meaning in Marathi and Arabic

Papua in Marathi

the southern part of Papua New Guinea
पापुआ pāpuā

Papua in Arabic

the southern part of Papua New Guinea
بَابْوَا bābwā

Forms of Papua

pluralPapuas
pluralPapua

Origin of Papua

There are three theories: * From Malay pepuah (“curly (of hair)”) for the natives of the island of New Guinea. * From Ternate/Tidore papo ua (“not united; not coalesced”), referring to the territory that geographically was far away from the Sultanate of Tidore (and thus not united). The territory was called papo ua gam sio (“nine village/region that is not united”). * From Biak sup i babwa (“the land below [the sunset]”), referring to the islands (Raja Ampat) west of the Bird's Head, as far as Halmahera.

Words formed from Papua

Phrases with Papua

Questions about Papua

What does Papua mean?
Papua means the southern part of what is now called Papua New Guinea, formerly administered as a separate territory to New Guinea.
What is Papua in Marathi?
Papua in Marathi is पापुआ (pāpuā). See Papua meaning in Marathi.
What part of speech is Papua?
Papua can be a proper noun or a noun.
How do you pronounce Papua?
Papua is pronounced /ˈpaːpwə/ (Australia).

Words near Papua in the dictionary

  1. Paprockis
  2. PAPRs
  3. paps
  4. papsak
  5. papsaks
  6. Papua
  7. Papua N.G.
  8. Papua New Guinea
  9. Papua New Guinean
  10. Papua New Guineans
  11. papuamide

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Papua (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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Cite this entry: “Papua.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/papua. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.