I. |ȯstrō|nēzhən, |äs-, -ēsh- adjective
Usage: usually capitalized
Etymology: International Scientific Vocabulary, from New Latin Austronesia, islands of the southern Pacific + International Scientific Vocabulary -an; originally formed as German austronesisch
: belonging or relating to a family of agglutinative languages spoken in the area extending from Madagascar in the west through the Malay peninsula and archipelago to Hawaii and Easter Island in the east and including practically all the native languages of the Pacific islands with exception of the Australian, Papuan, and Negrito languages — compare austric 2, indonesian
II. noun
( -s )
Usage: usually capitalized
: the Austronesian language family