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• Vietnamese
  Vietnamese

  adjective

  of or relating to Vietnam or its inhabitants.
• vietnamese
  vietnamese

  adjective

  of, relating to, or characteristic of Vietnam, its people, or their language

Vietnamese

American  

[vee-et-nah-meez, -mees, -nuh-, vyet-, vee-it-] / viˌɛt nɑˈmiz, -ˈmis, -nə-, ˌvjɛt-, ˌvi ɪt- /

adjective

1. of or relating to Vietnam or its inhabitants.

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noun

• Vietnamese
  plural

1. Formerly Annamite, Annamese. the Austroasiatic language of Vietnam.

2. Sometimes Offensive. a native or inhabitant of Vietnam.

vietnamese British  

/ ˌvjɛtnəˈmiːz /

adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of Vietnam, its people, or their language

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noun

1. a native or inhabitant of Vietnam

2. the language of Vietnam, probably related to the Mon-Khmer languages

Sensitive Note

Some words that describe national or ethnic identities are acceptable as plural nouns, but are either rare or offensive in the singular. This is the case for Vietnamese. It’s sometimes acceptable as a plural noun (a candidate favored by Vietnamese ). However, it's sometimes offensive as a singular noun (the candidate who is a Vietnamese ). Such words are always perfectly appropriate as adjectives (strategies to get Vietnamese voters to the polls).

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• anti-Vietnamese
  adjective
• pro-Vietnamese
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• Vietnamese
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of Vietnamese

First recorded in 1945–50; Vietnam + -ese

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Vietnamese

Up to 1.2 million Vietnamese soldiers are estimated to have been killed between 1945 and 1975, during wars involving former colonial power France, and then the United States as well as its allies.

From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026

Green SM owns and maintains its fleet of electric vehicles, built by the Vietnamese global automaker VinFast.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026

A Vietnamese fisherman or a Western company looking at sea-floor mining would face the wrath of the Malaysian navy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026

Some places I love to order in from are the Sisters Cafe, which is Vietnamese, and Jon and Vinny’s.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026

Over the following hours and days, reading classified cables in his Pentagon office, Ellsberg learned the truth about the South Vietnamese attacks on North Vietnam.

From "Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War" by Steve Sheinkin

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