Indonesian
Americannoun
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Indonesians
plural
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a member of the ethnic group consisting of the natives of Indonesia, the Filipinos, and the Malays of Malaysia.
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a member of a population supposed to have been resident in the Malay Archipelago before the Malays, and believed to constitute one element of the present mixed population of Malaysia and perhaps Polynesia.
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Official Name Bahasa Indonesia. an Indonesian language that is based on the form of Malay spoken in Java and has the status of official language in the Republic of Indonesia.
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the westernmost branch of the Austronesian family of languages, including Malay, Indonesian, Tagalog, and Malagasy.
adjective
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of or relating to the Malay Archipelago.
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of or relating to Indonesia, the Indonesians, or their languages.
adjective
noun
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a native or inhabitant of Indonesia
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another name for Bahasa Indonesia
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of Indonesian
First recorded in 1840–50; Indonesi(a) + -an
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:
It had a depth of 15km, the Indonesian agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics said in a statement.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
In 2015, schools in Malaysia were ordered to close for two days because of health concerns caused by severe haze from Indonesian fires.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
Under Indonesian law, the president must submit the nominee to parliament for a fit-and-proper test, a legislative process that typically takes several weeks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
Rescuers with backup from two Indonesian warships and a navy surveillance aircraft were searching for survivors even as estimates of the number of missing people kept changing.
From Barron's ● Aug. 3, 2026
They lived in the same high-rise where they’d raised Barack, in a small apartment decorated with Indonesian textiles that Ann had sent home over the years.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
Those arrested include 309 Chinese nationals, 19 Indonesians, three Malaysians and four Myanmar nationals.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
Indonesians made up the largest group of participants, holding nearly 25% of the tickets, it said.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
From January to April, more than 240,000 people, including Chinese, Indonesians, Indians and others, accused of scam involvement "voluntarily departed" Cambodia, the government said last week.
From Barron's ● Apr. 30, 2026
Everyone is doomed in Mr. Diaz’s account of European colonialism and exploratory naval history—not just the primitive Filipinos and Indonesians but the Portuguese on the mission from their silent God.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026
Why did Austronesian people, stemming ultimately from mainland China, colonize Java and the rest of Indonesia and replace the original inhabitants there, instead of Indonesians colonizing China and replacing the Chinese?
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Definitions 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.
