- a variation of Bengalee.
noun
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a member of a people living chiefly in Bangladesh and in West Bengal. The West Bengalis are mainly Hindus; the East Bengalis of Bangladesh are mainly Muslims
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Also called: Bangla. the language of this people: the official language of Bangladesh and the chief language of West Bengal; it belongs to the Indic branch of the Indo-European family
adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
When mother and son sing songs from the famous cycle by Bengali writer-composer and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore or hold a deathbed conversation in Bangla, the piece spins further across time and space.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2026
Even though my sister lives thousands of miles away, and my parents have been gone for nearly two decades, growing my Bengali plants here makes San Diego, home.
From Salon ● May 9, 2026
Nonetheless Bengali voters were seen as allergic to the BJP for decades.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 6, 2026
After the results, Bhattacharya said, the BJP would send "different kinds of small fish" to Banerjee's house and invite her party workers over for mach bhaat, Bengali for fish and rice.
From BBC ● Apr. 20, 2026
The only way to avoid such confusion, they have concluded, is to do away with the pet name altogether, as many of their Bengali friends have already done.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
Add to this the perception, used effectively by Ms. Banerjee five years ago, that the BJP was the party of landlocked Hindi-speaking North Indian vegetarians alien to the fish-eating Bengalis of the coast.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 6, 2026
"Bengalis who live in Karachi mostly speak Urdu," he said, adding: "We don't have our own culture now".
From Barron's ● Feb. 23, 2026
Perhaps it wouldn’t be so far-fetched to say that us Bengalis have an ingrained adoration for Payesh.
From Salon ● Jan. 10, 2026
However, the retired Pakistan army major insists that Bangladesh should also address the issue of attacks by Bengalis on Urdu speakers during the struggle for independence.
From BBC ● Mar. 16, 2025
For by now all the Cambridge Bengalis have moved to places like Dedham and Framingham and Lexington and Winchester, to houses with backyards and driveways.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
