name · noun · 4 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
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US:/mædəˈɡæskɑɹ/
Scotland:/madəˈɡaskəɾ/
Scotland:/-skaɾ/
CMU ARPABET:M AE2 D AH0 G AE1 S K ER0
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
1
name
Meaning 1
An island and country off the east coast of Africa. Official name: Republic of Madagascar. Capital: Antananarivo.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
2
noun
Meaning 2
A resident of Madagascar.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete, rare
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: Madagascan, Madagascarian, Malagasy
Antonyms: none provided
3
noun
Meaning 3
an island in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa; the 4th largest island in the world
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: island
4
noun
Meaning 4
a republic on the island of Madagascar; achieved independence from France in 1960
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: Republic of Madagascar, Malagasy Republic
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: African country, African nation
History
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French Madagascar, from Madageiscar, popularly reputed as a corrupted transliteration of Mogadishu by Marco Polo's misreading of Arabic. The maps of particular interest are that of al-Idrisi in the 12th century, who produced the Tabula Rogeriana, the most advanced world map at the time. The actual misconstrued term was Arabic جَزِيرَة المَالَائِيّ (jazīrat al-mālāʔiyy, “The Island of Mālāī”) listed alongside Arabic جَزِيرَة القَمَر (jazīrat al-qamar, “The Island of the Moon”) which lent its name to Comoros; Madagascar however likely being the original based on its dimensions. The map in question warps the direction of Africa's east coast to be parallel to the coast of southeast Asia, prompting a conflation of the regions furthest east and furthest south, in the reaches of Arab exploration. This perhaps makes the Island of Mālāī both representing Madagascar and an island in Indonesia, likely Sumatra, in close proximity to Malaysia. To conflate matters further, the populations of both regions are of Austronesian background, a fact pointed out by Arab explorers who identified Madagascar as colony of the former region. A second wave of Austronesians, including Malays, did indeed migrate to the island after the first group had originally left from what was likely Southern Borneo from linguistic and genetic analysis. "Mālāī-Gezīra" also holds connection to the term for the people and languages of the island, Malagasy, which had earlier forms Malegass and Madegass, because of dialect division.
Across languages
Translations
101 source translations are retained for this English entry.
Afrikaans:
Madagaskar
— country in Southern Africa
Amharic:
ማዳጋስካር
(madagaskar)
— country in Southern Africa
Arabic:
مَدَغَشْقَر
(madaḡašqar)
— country in Southern Africa
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic:
ܡܲܕܲܓܲܫܩܲܪ
(maddagašqar)
— country in Southern Africa
Armenian:
Մադագասկար
(Madagaskar)
— country in Southern Africa
Assamese:
মাদাগাস্কাৰ
(madagaskar)
— country in Southern Africa
Asturian:
Madagascar
— country in Southern Africa
Azerbaijani:
Madaqaskar
— country in Southern Africa
Belarusian:
Мадагаска́р
(Madahaskár)
— country in Southern Africa
Bengali:
মাদাগাস্কার
(madagaskar)
— country in Southern Africa
Breton:
Madagaskar
— country in Southern Africa
Bulgarian:
Мадагаска́р
(Madagaskár)
— country in Southern Africa
Burmese:
မဒါဂတ်စကား
(ma.dagatca.ka:)
— country in Southern Africa
Catalan:
Madagascar
— country in Southern Africa
Cherokee:
ᎹᏓᎦᏍᎧᎵ
(madagaskali)
— country in Southern Africa
Chinese Mandarin:
馬達加斯加 /马达加斯加
(Mǎdájiāsījiā)
— country in Southern Africa
Czech:
Madagaskar
— country in Southern Africa
Danish:
Madagaskar
— country in Southern Africa
Dhivehi:
މަޑަގަސްކަރަ
(maḍagaskara)
— country in Southern Africa
Dutch:
Madagaskar
— country in Southern Africa
Esperanto:
Madagaskaro
— country in Southern Africa
Estonian:
Madagaskar
— country in Southern Africa
Finnish:
Madagaskar
— country in Southern Africa
French:
Madagascar
— country in Southern Africa
Galician:
Madagascar
— country in Southern Africa
Georgian:
მადაგასკარი
(madagasḳari)
— country in Southern Africa
German:
Madagaskar
— country in Southern Africa
Greek:
Μαδαγασκάρη
(Madagaskári)
— country in Southern Africa
Hausa:
Madagaskar
— country in Southern Africa
Hebrew:
מדגסקר
(madagaskár)
— country in Southern Africa
Hindi:
मेडागास्कर
(meḍāgāskar)
— country in Southern Africa
Hindi:
मैडागास्कर
(maiḍāgāskar)
— country in Southern Africa
Hungarian:
Madagaszkár
— country in Southern Africa
Icelandic:
Madagaskar
— country in Southern Africa
Ingrian:
Madagaskara
— country in Southern Africa
Interlingua:
Madagascar
— country in Southern Africa
Irish:
Madagascar
— country in Southern Africa
Italian:
Madagascar
— country in Southern Africa
Japanese:
マダガスカル
(Madagasukaru)
— country in Southern Africa
Kamba:
Madagaska
— country in Southern Africa
Kazakh:
Мадагаскар
(Madagaskar)
— country in Southern Africa
Khmer:
ម៉ាដាហ្គាស្ការ
(maadaagiəskaa)
— country in Southern Africa
Kikuyu:
Madagaska
— country in Southern Africa
Korean:
마다가스카르
(Madagaseukareu)
— country in Southern Africa
Korean:
마다가스까르
(Madagaseukkareu)
— country in Southern Africa
Kyrgyz:
Мадагаскар
(Madagaskar)
— country in Southern Africa
Lao:
ມາດາກັດກາ
(mā dā kat kā)
— country in Southern Africa
Lao:
ມາດາກາສະກາ
(mā dā kā sa kā)
— country in Southern Africa
Latin:
Madagascaria
— country in Southern Africa
Latvian:
Madagaskara
— country in Southern Africa
Lithuanian:
Madagaskaras
— country in Southern Africa
Luhya:
Madagaska
— country in Southern Africa
Luo:
Madagaska
— country in Southern Africa
Macedonian:
Мадага́скар
(Madagáskar)
— country in Southern Africa
Malagasy:
Madagasikara
— country in Southern Africa
Malay:
Madagaskar
— country in Southern Africa
Manx:
Madagascar
— country in Southern Africa
Māori:
Marakāhia
— country in Southern Africa
Māori:
Matakahaka
— country in Southern Africa
Meru:
Madagaska
— country in Southern Africa
Mongolian:
Мадагаскар
(Madagaskar)
— country in Southern Africa
Navajo:
Mágí Bitseeʼ Noodǫ́zí Bikéyah
— country in Southern Africa
Norman:
Madagascar
— country in Southern Africa
Norwegian Bokmål:
Madagaskar
— country in Southern Africa
Norwegian Nynorsk:
Madagaskar
— country in Southern Africa
Persian:
ماداگاسکار
(mâdâgâskâr)
— country in Southern Africa
Pitcairn-Norfolk:
Madagascar
— country in Southern Africa
Polish:
Madagaskar
— country in Southern Africa
Portuguese:
Madagáscar
— country in Southern Africa
Portuguese:
Madagascar
— country in Southern Africa
Punjabi:
ਮਾਦਾਗਾਸਕਰ
(mādāgāskar)
— country in Southern Africa
Punjabi:
مڈغاسکر
(mḍġāskr)
— country in Southern Africa
Romanian:
Madagascar
— country in Southern Africa
Russian:
Мадагаска́р
(Madagaskár)
— country in Southern Africa
Scots:
Madagascar
— country in Southern Africa
Serbo-Croatian:
Мадагаскар
— country in Southern Africa
Serbo-Croatian:
Madagaskar
— country in Southern Africa
Sinhalese:
මැඩගස්කරය
(mæḍagaskaraya)
— country in Southern Africa
Slovak:
Madagaskar
— country in Southern Africa
Slovene:
Madagaskar
— country in Southern Africa
Spanish:
Madagascar
— country in Southern Africa
Swahili:
Bukini
— country in Southern Africa
Swahili:
Madagaska
— country in Southern Africa
Swedish:
Madagaskar
— country in Southern Africa
Tagalog:
Madagaskar
— country in Southern Africa
Tajik:
Мадагаскар
(Madagaskar)
— country in Southern Africa
Tamil:
மடகாஸ்கர்
(maṭakāskar)
— country in Southern Africa
Tamil:
மடகஸ்கார்
(maṭakaskār)
— country in Southern Africa
Tatar:
Мадагаскар
(Madağasqar)
— country in Southern Africa
Thai:
มาดากัสการ์
(maa-daa-gás-gâa)
— country in Southern Africa
Tibetan:
མ་ད་གཱ་སི་ཀར
(ma da gā si kar)
— country in Southern Africa
Tigrinya:
ማዳጋስካር
(madagaskar)
— country in Southern Africa
Turkish:
Madagaskar
— country in Southern Africa
Turkmen:
Madagaskar
— country in Southern Africa
Ukrainian:
Мадагаска́р
(Madahaskár)
— country in Southern Africa
Urdu:
مڈغاسکر
(meḍāġāskar)
— country in Southern Africa
Uyghur:
ماداگاسكار
(madagaskar)
— country in Southern Africa
Uzbek:
Madagaskar
— country in Southern Africa
Vietnamese:
Ma-đa-gát-xca
— country in Southern Africa
Yiddish:
מאַדאַגאַסקאַר
(madagaskar)
— country in Southern Africa