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• Vietnamese
  Vietnamese

  adjective

  of or relating to Vietnam or its inhabitants.
• vietnamese
  vietnamese

  adjective

  of, relating to, or characteristic of Vietnam, its people, or their language

Vietnamese

American  

[vee-et-nah-meez, -mees, -nuh-, vyet-, vee-it-] / viˌɛt nɑˈmiz, -ˈmis, -nə-, ˌvjɛt-, ˌvi ɪt- /

adjective

1. of or relating to Vietnam or its inhabitants.

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noun

• Vietnamese
  plural

1. Formerly Annamite, Annamese. the Austroasiatic language of Vietnam.

2. Sometimes Offensive. a native or inhabitant of Vietnam.

vietnamese British  

/ ˌvjɛtnəˈmiːz /

adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of Vietnam, its people, or their language

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noun

1. a native or inhabitant of Vietnam

2. the language of Vietnam, probably related to the Mon-Khmer languages

Sensitive Note

Some words that describe national or ethnic identities are acceptable as plural nouns, but are either rare or offensive in the singular. This is the case for Vietnamese. It’s sometimes acceptable as a plural noun (a candidate favored by Vietnamese ). However, it's sometimes offensive as a singular noun (the candidate who is a Vietnamese ). Such words are always perfectly appropriate as adjectives (strategies to get Vietnamese voters to the polls).

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• anti-Vietnamese
  adjective
• pro-Vietnamese
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• Vietnamese
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of Vietnamese

First recorded in 1945–50; Vietnam + -ese

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Vietnamese

Up to 1.2 million Vietnamese soldiers are estimated to have been killed between 1945 and 1975, during wars involving former colonial power France, and then the United States as well as its allies.

From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026

Green SM owns and maintains its fleet of electric vehicles, built by the Vietnamese global automaker VinFast.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026

According to a Vietnamese state media report published on Monday, Tran and Nguyen were detained with a third man at the border in Tay Ninh province on 18 September.

From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026

The value of Vietnamese imports during those six months exceeded the $114 billion total for all of 2023.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026

What was he doing here fighting the North Vietnamese?

From "Boots on the Ground: America's War in Vietnam" by Elizabeth Partridge

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