Austronesian
/ˌɔːs.tɹoʊˈniː.ʒən/
"austronesian" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Austronesian” is an uncommon English word, ranked #94,544 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #94,544
- frequency rank, English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Pertaining to the Austronesian language family.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Austronesian |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˌɔːs.tɹoʊˈniː.ʒən/ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Frequency rank | #94,544 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Austronesian” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Austronesian is 12 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˌɔːs.tɹoʊˈniː.ʒən/. Corpus data places it at rank #94,544 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for Austronesian, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from German Austronesisch; coined by Wilhelm Schmidt. From Latin austro- (“southern”) + Ancient Greek νῆσος (nêsos, “island”) + -ian. The correct English form is Austronesian, spelled A-U-S-T-R-O-N-E-S-I-A-N.
Definition
- 1Pertaining to the Austronesian language family.
- 2Of or pertaining to Austronesia.
Etymology
Borrowed from German Austronesisch; coined by Wilhelm Schmidt. From Latin austro- (“southern”) + Ancient Greek νῆσος (nêsos, “island”) + -ian.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “Austronesian”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-U-S-T-R-O-N-E-S-I-A-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˌɔːs.tɹoʊˈniː.ʒən/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.