East Indies
Americanplural noun
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Also called the Indies. SE Asia, including East Timor, India, Indonesia, and the Malay Archipelago.
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the Malay Archipelago.
plural noun
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the Malay Archipelago, including or excluding the Philippines
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SE Asia in general
Other Word 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.
Football-mad Indonesia participated in the World Cup just once, in 1938, when it was known as the Dutch East Indies, losing 6-0 in the final 16 to Hungary.
From Barron's ● Jun. 12, 2026
The great stories of exploration and trade and imperial rivalry are here, from the Phoenician sailors who plied the ancient Mediterranean to the 17th-century Dutch who traded in the East Indies.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 17, 2026
The Dutch in the East Indies and the British in India saw relationships between European women and colonised men as much more threatening than the reverse, and policed them accordingly.
From BBC ● Dec. 25, 2023
Japanese troops occupied Indonesia, then the Dutch East Indies colony, from 1942 until Tokyo surrendered in August 1945.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 18, 2023
He also did not anticipate running into a landmass before he reached the East Indies.
From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman
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.
