| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| Asian |
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| SYLLABICATION: | A·sian |
| PRONUNCIATION: |    zh n, shn |
| ADJECTIVE: | Of or relating to Asia or its peoples, languages, or cultures. | | NOUN: | 1. A native or inhabitant of Asia. 2. A person of Asian descent. | | USAGE NOTE: | Asia is the largest of the continents with more than half the world's population. Though strictly speaking all of its inhabitants are Asians, in practice this term is applied almost exclusively to the peoples of East, Southeast, and South Asia as opposed to those of Southwest Asia—such as Arabs, Turks, Iranians, and Kurds—who are more usually designated Middle or Near Easterners. Indonesians and Filipinos are properly termed Asian, since their island groups are considered part of the Asian continent, but not the Melanesians, Micronesians, and Polynesians of the central and southern Pacific, who are now often referred to collectively as Pacific Islanders. See Usage Note at Oriental.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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