Indo-European

American  

[in-doh-yoor-uh-pee-uhn] / ˈɪn doʊˌyʊər əˈpi ən /

noun

1. a large, widespread family of languages, the surviving branches of which include Italic, Slavic, Baltic, Hellenic, Celtic, Germanic, and Indo-Iranian, spoken by about half the world's population: English, Spanish, German, Latin, Greek, Russian, Albanian, Lithuanian, Armenian, Persian, Hindi, and Hittite are all Indo-European languages. IE

2. Proto-Indo-European.

3. a member of any of the peoples speaking an Indo-European language.

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adjective

1. of or belonging to Indo-European.

2. speaking an Indo-European language.

   an Indo-European people.

Indo-European British  

adjective

1. denoting, belonging to, or relating to a family of languages that includes English and many other culturally and politically important languages of the world: a characteristic feature, esp of the older languages such as Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit, is inflection showing gender, number, and case

2. denoting or relating to the hypothetical parent language of this family, primitive Indo-European

3. denoting, belonging to, or relating to any of the peoples speaking these languages

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noun

1. the Indo-European family of languages

2. Also called: primitive Indo-European.   Proto-Indo-European.  the reconstructed hypothetical parent language of this family

3. a member of the prehistoric people who spoke this language

4. a descendant of this people or a native speaker of an Indo-European language

Other Word Forms

• non-Indo-European adjective

Etymology

Origin of Indo-European

First recorded in 1805–15; Indo- ( def. ) + European ( def. )

Example Sentences

The steppe people transformed the continent over the course of 5 centuries, introducing the wheel and Indo-European languages.

From Science Magazine • Jun. 19, 2024

His followers likely practiced a polytheistic religion similar in many ways to the Vedic traditions held by Indo-European speakers who migrated into India.

From Textbooks • Apr. 19, 2023

Another 13% speak an Indo-European language other than Spanish.

From Seattle Times • Nov. 12, 2022

These migrations may also have brought Indo-European languages to the region.

From Scientific American • Nov. 5, 2022

Some words started from Indo-European and swarmed into religion over a very large part of the earth.

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas