Dravidian
Americannoun
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a family of languages, wholly distinct from Indo-European, spoken mostly in southern India and Sri Lanka and including Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and, in Pakistan, Brahui.
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a member of the aboriginal population occupying much of southern India and parts of Sri Lanka.
adjective
noun
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a family of languages spoken in S and central India and Sri Lanka, including Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, and Gondi
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a member of one of the aboriginal races of India, pushed south by the Indo-Europeans and now mixed with them
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of Dravidian
First recorded in 1855–60; from Sanskrit Draviḍ(a) the proper name of an ethnic group + -ian
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.
"Now it's a different Vijay. His on-screen persona as incorruptible, restrained, morally upright, mirrored the ethical imagination of Dravidian politics, a cinematic grammar Tamil audiences recognise instinctively," says Chakravarthy.
From BBC • Jan. 12, 2026
Some linguists, however, argue that the appearance of Sanskrit was predated by Tamil, a Dravidian language that is still used by almost 85 million native speakers in southern India and Sri Lanka.
From Scientific American • Aug. 24, 2023
Kannada, the language that Google’s fact box said was India’s ugliest, is part of a family of Dravidian languages that are native to southern India and go back thousands of years.
From New York Times • Jun. 4, 2021
Tamil Nadu’s politics are hyperlocal even by Indian standards—it’s essentially a two-party state, with its guiding ideologies based in the historic Dravidian Self-Respect Movement, a source of pride for India’s Tamil population.
From Slate • May 4, 2021
Dravidian, generally regarded as representing the indigenous element.
From Man, Past and Present by Haddon, Alfred Court
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.
