Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
Malaya

Malaya

5 6.5
The part of Malaysia on the Malay Peninsula that borders Thailand to the north
  • proper noun
translation icon : Malaya
  • From 1948 through 1960, the British army fought a counterinsurgency campaign in what was then called Malaya.
  • University of Malaya
  • British Malaya
  • Burma and Malaya

This year Ghana and Malaya joined our brotherhood.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • Following World War II, this policy reached an apex when the Japanese occupied British Malaya.

    Academic text (2009)

  • Al-Attas returned to the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur.

    Academic text (2009)

  • Meanwhile in Malaya the situation was critical for the British defenders on the coast.

  • Originally, he proposed an exchange with the University of Malaya in 1993, but relations between Malaysia and the United States had been strained for a while.

    Academic text (2003)

  • The second attempt by Indonesia, Malaya, and the Philippines in 1963 to form the regional organization called Maphilindo was stillborn.

    Academic text (1995)

  • The Sindhis began establishing themselves as merchants in Malaya around the 1880s, settling mainly in towns on the west coast of the peninsula.

    Academic text (2018)

  • In 1959, Singapore was granted internal home government and, in 1963, was granted independence together with Malaya and the states of Sabah and Sarawak on the island of Borneo through the Federation of Malaysia.

    Academic text (1992)

  • Sir Robert, a veteran of Britain's 1948-1960 counterinsurgency campaign in Malaya, argued that in wars like Malaya and Vietnam, the government and its foreign allies must realize that any progress in defeating the insurgents will have to take place over a period of years; that trying to achieve quick successes is counterproductive.

    Academic text (1997)

  • Prior to the influx of Indians into Malaya during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, traders from South Asia had been arriving and settling in the trading ports of Penang, Malacca, and Singapore.

    Academic text (2018)

  • During World War II, the Japanese launched a swift invasion of Malaya, quickly defeating British forces.

Synonyms

Peninsular Malaysia
vsMalaya
3.5

The part of Malaysia on the Malay Peninsula that borders Thailand to the north

is the same area but includes an older historical name
West Malaysia
vsMalaya
3.0

The part of Malaysia on the Malay Peninsula that includes Kuala Lumpur and borders Thailand

is the same region but uses an older historical name

Surface Forms

Malaya main

Etymology

Malaya comes from the name of the Malay people and the old Malay word Melayu, which means 'Malay'. So Malaya came to mean the land on the Malay Peninsula where those people lived, and that is why it names that part of Malaysia today.