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• Scandinavian
  Scandinavian

  adjective

  of or relating to Scandinavia, its inhabitants, or their languages.
• scandinavian
  scandinavian

  adjective

  of, relating to, or characteristic of Scandinavia, its inhabitants, or their languages

Scandinavian

American  

[skan-duh-nay-vee-uhn] / ˌskæn dəˈneɪ vi ən /

adjective

1. of or relating to Scandinavia, its inhabitants, or their languages.

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noun

• Scandinavians
  plural

1. a native or inhabitant of Scandinavia.

2. the group of languages composed of Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian, Old Norse, Swedish, and the language of the Faeroe Islands; North Germanic. Scand, Scand.

scandinavian British  

/ ˌskændɪˈneɪvɪən /

adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of Scandinavia, its inhabitants, or their languages

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noun

1. a native or inhabitant of Scandinavia

2. Also: Norse. the northern group of Germanic languages, consisting of Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faeroese

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• anti-Scandinavian
  adjective
• non-Scandinavian
  adjective
• pro-Scandinavian
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• Scandinavians
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of Scandinavian

First recorded in 1775–85; Scandinavi(a) + -an

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Scandinavian Scandinavians

Visit Norway, the Scandinavian country’s tourism agency, responded to Trump’s insult with a cheeky campaign celebrating its spectacular public restrooms, declaring that Norway makes “shithouses great again.”

From Salon ● Oct. 31, 2026

Co-author David Mataix-Cols states that he has received author's fees from UpToDate Inc and that he is a partner in Scandinavian E-Health AB, which is unrelated to the publication.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 23, 2026

She is a staunch defender of the Scandinavian country's famed welfare state, with an attitude that resonates with many Swedes, regularly topping opinion polls on the country's most trusted politicians.

From Barron's ● Sep. 17, 2026

For example, she added smorgasbord instructions after the Scandinavian buffet became popular at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026

Northwest of downtown, in the old Scandinavian neighborhood of Ballard, tugboats belching plumes of black smoke nosed long rafts of logs into the locks that would raise them to the level of Lake Washington.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown

Today, Scandinavians differ in their enthusiasm for this narrative.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 23, 2026

A few hundred yards up the road, there was an even bigger Danish corner, which came to include all types of Scandinavians in one giant collection of sunburns.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026

The two nations have almost identical populations, so how have the Scandinavians aced their plan of attack?

From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2026

Famously stoic Scandinavians have cultivated concepts like "hygge" -- or coziness -- to get them through the long winter nights.

From Barron's ● Dec. 26, 2025

For instance, today almost all Japanese and Scandinavians are literate but most Iraqis are not: why did writing nevertheless arise nearly four thousand years earlier in Iraq?

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

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