🎭 Relating to culture 🌏 An ethnic group 🗣️ A language 🧑 A person

Tamil

4.9

A person whose family comes from Tamil Nadu in India or from Sri Lanka

noun
/ˈtæmɪl/

: tamil

Many Tamils from Sri Lanka have settled in various countries due to the civil war.

Examples

Since then we've taken Tamils escaping civil war, Bosnians escaping genocide and Syrians escaping Assad.
And before that in Sri Lanka, for example, in the fights between the Tamils and the and the Sinhas.
The Tamils have a rich cultural heritage that includes unique festivals and traditions.
As a proud Tamil, she shared stories about her ancestors' history and their contributions.

Synonyms

Dravidian

vsTamil

8.5

A person from the native peoples of southern India who speaks languages like Tamil or Telugu

is a narrower southern India and Sri Lanka group that uses one regional language

Compounds

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam

NSFW

9.3

An armed group in Sri Lanka that fought for a separate Tamil state and used suicide attacks

Tamil Eelam

9.9

A proposed independent state in Sri Lanka for the Tamil people

Tamil language

4.0

A language spoken by Tamil people in southern India and Sri Lanka

Tamil Tigers

NSFW

9.1

An armed group in Sri Lanka that fought for a separate Tamil state using violent attacks

Surface Forms

Tamil singular

Tamils plural

Etymology

Tamil comes from the people’s own name for themselves and their speech, tamiḻ, sometimes written tamiz, which means 'our speech'. That is why a Tamil is a person who belongs to that group and speaks the Tamil language.