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
Japan occupied Indonesia, a former Dutch colony called the Dutch East Indies, from 1942 until Tokyo surrendered in August 1945.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 15, 2023
He told me that after the war he wanted to go to the Dutch East Indies and live on a rubber plantation.
From "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank
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