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
- East Indian adjective
- pseudo-East Indian adjective
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.
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
To my question then, that would Indonesia consider letting Aceh go as well, Dewi had retorted that Indonesia was either the former Dutch East Indies or it was nothing.
From BBC • Feb. 9, 2024
Japanese troops occupied Indonesia, then the Dutch East Indies colony, from 1942 until Tokyo surrendered in August 1945.
From Seattle Times • Jun. 18, 2023
Jacob Luitjens was born April 18, 1919, in Buitenzorg, in what was then the Dutch East Indies, now Bogor on the Indonesian island of Java.
From Washington Post • Dec. 20, 2022
OPPOSITE: An image of one of the “curiosity cabinets” Maria visited in Amsterdam, belonging to the Dutch East Indies merchant Livinus Vincent.
From "The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian's Art Changed Science" by Joyce Sidman
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.
