Malay
Americanadjective
-
of, relating to, or characteristic of a racially intermixed people who are the dominant population of the Malay Peninsula and adjacent islands.
-
of or relating to the language or culture of these people.
noun
-
Malays
plural
-
a member of the Malay people.
-
an Austronesian language of Malaysia and Singapore, differing from Indonesian only in orthography.
noun
-
a member of a people living chiefly in Malaysia and Indonesia who are descendants of Mongoloid immigrants
-
the language of this people, belonging to the Malayo-Polynesian family
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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.
See Examples For:
Born in Battambang, Ali, 52, is of mixed Malay, Khmer, Thai and Cham ethnicity, and was raised Muslim in a country that’s 96% Buddhist.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
"Screening a dialect film is now no different from screening a French or Malay film."
From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2026
De' Conti acknowledged the fruit's esteem throughout the Malay archipelago, but considered its odour nauseating.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2024
The fruit is even embedded in the country’s financial lexicon: The Malay word for a windfall is durian runtuh, a term that offers the joyous image of durians collapsing to the ground.
From New York Times ● Jun. 16, 2024
Those details of linguistic relationships agree perfectly with the archaeological evidence that the colonization of the Malay Peninsula was recent, and followed rather than preceded the colonization of Taiwan, the Philippines, and Indonesia.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
The 1MDB scandal ended the six-decade run in power of his party, the United Malays National Organization.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
A conviction could add years to Najib's sentence and deal a further blow to his lingering influence within Malaysia's oldest political party, the United Malays National Organisation, which lost power in the 2018 election.
From Barron's ● Dec. 25, 2025
Ethnic Malays — all of whom are considered Muslim in Malaysian law — make up two-thirds of Malaysia’s 33 million people, with large Chinese and Indian minorities.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 8, 2024
The party retains considerable support among ethnic Malays, the majority, who benefited during Mr. Najib’s nine-year rule and whom Mr. Anwar is now trying to court.
From New York Times ● Feb. 2, 2024
He prowled from the square and left Nat alone in the swarm of Malays.
From "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" by Jean Lee Latham
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
