Indo-European

[ in-doh-yoor-uh-pee-uhn ]

noun

1. a large, widespread family of languages, the surviving branches of which include Italic, Slavic, Baltic, Hellenic, Celtic, Germanic, and Indo-Iranian, spoken by about half the world's population: English, Spanish, German, Latin, Greek, Russian, Albanian, Lithuanian, Armenian, Persian, Hindi, and Hittite are all Indo-European languages. : IE Compare family ( def 16 ).
2. Proto-Indo-European ( def 1 ).
3. a member of any of the peoples speaking an Indo-European language.

adjective

1. of or belonging to Indo-European.
2. speaking an Indo-European language:

   an Indo-European people.

Indo-European

adjective

1. denoting, belonging to, or relating to a family of languages that includes English and many other culturally and politically important languages of the world: a characteristic feature, esp of the older languages such as Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit, is inflection showing gender, number, and case
2. denoting or relating to the hypothetical parent language of this family, primitive Indo-European
3. denoting, belonging to, or relating to any of the peoples speaking these languages

noun

1. the Indo-European family of languages
2. Also calledprimitive Indo-EuropeanProto-Indo-European the reconstructed hypothetical parent language of this family
3. a member of the prehistoric people who spoke this language
4. a descendant of this people or a native speaker of an Indo-European language

Other Words From

• non-Indo-Euro·pean adjective noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of Indo-European¹

First recorded in 1805–15; Indo- ( def ) + European ( def )

Example Sentences

And the Latin mātrīx for “womb” comes from the same Indo-European root that gives us the English “mother.”

From The Daily Beast

We would not expect that the Indo-European movement would form an exception to this rule.

From Project Gutenberg

One marked feature of Indo-European culture was the use of the horse, which held the highest rank among their domestic animals.

From Project Gutenberg

He sees in this the first stage of the Indo-European movement which was to sweep eastward as far as India.

From Project Gutenberg

If they played so large a part in Indo-European culture, it is strange that they have left so few remains.

From Project Gutenberg

Feile, &c.; the ultimate source is usually taken to be an Indo-European root meaning to mark or scratch, and seen in the Lat.

From Project Gutenberg