Palau

Borrowed from Palauan Belau (“Palau”), traditionally derived from aidebelau (“indirect replies”) in reference to the island's creation story, or from beluu (“village”), from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *banua (“inhabited land, territory”).

• (General Australian, UK, US) IPA^(key): /pəˈlaʊ/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (UK):

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• Rhymes: -aʊ

Palau

2. A country consisting of around 340 islands in Micronesia, in Oceania. Official name: Republic of Palau. Capital: Ngerulmud.

   Synonyms: PW, PLW (symbols)

   • 1989, Douglas L. Oliver, “Social Relations”, in Native Cultures of the Pacific Islands‎^[1], Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 146:

     Another society in which wealth per se was highly valued was Palau, but wealth belonging to descent units and not to individuals. […]
     Palau society was divided into a large number of individually named, exogamous matriclans, and these were in turn subdivided into named matrilineages, each of which was a land-owning corporation and localized within a single community.

   • 2014 February 5, Edith M. Lederer, “Palau to ban commercial fishing, promote tourism”, in AP News‎^[2], archived from the original on 19 July 2023‎^[3]:

     The president of Palau declared Tuesday that his Pacific island nation will ban commercial fishing and become a marine sanctuary. […]
     Remengesau said establishing “a 100 percent marine sanctuary” will enable Palau to preserve “a pristine environment” and promote snorkeling, scuba diving and ecotourism as an alternative way to grow its economy.

   • 2016 February 17, Ian Urbina, “Palau vs. the Poachers”, in The New York Times‎^[4], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 17 February 2016‎^[5]:

     Few places on the planet are as isolated as Palau, or as sprawling. Its 21,000 residents are scattered across a handful of its 250 islands, which take up just 177 square miles combined. Relatively poor, and with no military of its own, Palau employs a marine police division with just 18 members and one patrol ship.

   • 2021 October 14, Byron Kaye, “Tiny Pacific nation beats the world with 99% COVID vaccination, says Red Cross”, in Raju Gopalakrishnan, editor, Reuters‎^[6], archived from the original on 14 October 2021, Asia Pacific‎^[7]:

     Fully 99% of Palau's population over 12 has had both shots of vaccine for the new coronavirus, the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) said, citing government figures which also show that this amounts to 16,152 people.
     That puts Palau, an archipelago of 500 islands in the western Pacific Ocean, in the "top spot", the IFRC said in a statement, ahead of countries like Portugal which was named one of the world's most vaccinated countries when 80% of its 10 million people were fully immunized last month.

   • 2024 December 5, Joyu Wang, Austin Ramzy, “Beijing Has Picked Off Taiwan’s Remaining Allies. Taiwan Is Fighting Back.”, in The Wall Street Journal‎^[8], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 06 December 2024‎^[9]:

     While in Palau, Lai delivered a speech at its legislature and plans to open a government building complex that Taiwan helped to build. On Friday, Taiwan and Palau are set to conduct a joint maritime rescue drill, with Taiwan’s coast guard sending one of its newest domestically-made vessels from its southern port of Kaohsiung, in a possible rehearsal for showdowns with Chinese coast guard vessels in disputed regional waters.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Palau.

• Palauan

• Ngerulmud
• Countries of the world

• “Palau”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• Palau at the Google Books Ngram Viewer.
• “Palau”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “Palau”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “Palau” in TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2025.

• Lapua, Paula

• Belau

Palau

1. Palau (a country consisting of around 340 islands in Micronesia, in Oceania; capital: Ngerulmud)

• Palauer
• Palaus

Ultimately from Palauan Belau (“Palau”).

Palau

1. Palau (a country consisting of around 340 islands in Micronesia, in Oceania)

Ultimately from Palauan Belau (“Palau”).

• IPA^(key): [ˈpalau̯]
• Hyphenation: Pa‧lau

Palau n (indeclinable, relational adjective palauský, demonym Palauan, female demonym Palauanka)

1. Palau (a country consisting of around 340 islands in Micronesia, in Oceania)

• “Palau”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2025

Ultimately from Palauan Belau (“Palau”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɑlɑu̯/, [ˈpɑ̝lɑ̝u̯]
• Rhymes: -ɑlɑu
• Syllabification^(key): Pa‧lau
• Hyphenation^(key): Pa‧lau

Palau

1. Palau (a country consisting of around 340 islands in Micronesia, in Oceania)

• Lapua, Paula, lupaa, paalu, paula, pulaa

Ultimately from Palauan Belau (“Palau”).

• Audio:

  (file)

Palau n (proper noun, genitive Palaus or (optionally with an article) Palau)

1. Palau (a country consisting of around 340 islands in Micronesia, in Oceania)

• palauisch

Ultimately from Palauan Belau (“Palau”).

• IPA^(key): [ˈpɒlɒu]
• Hyphenation: Pa‧lau
• Rhymes: -u

Palau

1. Palau (a country consisting of around 340 islands in Micronesia, in Oceania; official name: Palaui Köztársaság)

• palaui

Ultimately from Palauan Belau (“Palau”).

Palau m

1. Palau (a country consisting of around 340 islands in Micronesia, in Oceania)

• palauano

• apula

Ultimately from Palauan Belau (“Palau”).

• IPA^(key): [pɐˈlɑˑʊ]
• Hyphenation: Pa‧lau

Paláu m (uncountable, indeclinable, relational adjective palaujiẽtiškas, demonym palaujiẽtis, female demonym palaujiẽtė)

1. Palau (a country consisting of around 340 islands in Micronesia, in Oceania; official name: Paláu Respùblika)

• “Palau” in Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija (Universal Lithuanian Encyclopedia)

Ultimately from Palauan Belau (“Palau”).

Palau

1. Palau (a country consisting of around 340 islands in Micronesia, in Oceania)

• Karolinene
• palauer
• palauisk

Ultimately from Palauan Belau (“Palau”).

Palau

1. Palau (a country consisting of around 340 islands in Micronesia, in Oceania)

• palauar
• palauisk

Borrowed from English Palau, from Palauan Belau (“Palau”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈpa.law/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -alaw
• Syllabification: Pa‧lau

Palau n (indeclinable, related adjective palauski)

1. Palau (a country consisting of around 340 islands in Micronesia, in Oceania)
2. Palau (a commune and city in Sassari, Sardinia, Italy)

• Palau in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Ultimately from Palauan Belau (“Palau”).

• Rhymes: -aw
• Hyphenation: Pa‧lau

Palau m

1. Palau (a country consisting of around 340 islands in Micronesia, in Oceania)

• palauano

Ultimately from Palauan Belau (“Palau”).

• Audio:

  (file)

Palau n (genitive Palaus)

1. Palau (a country consisting of around 340 islands in Micronesia, in Oceania)

• palauer
• palauisk
• palauiska

• Palau in Svenska Akademiens ordböcker
• Utrikes namnbok (12th ed., 2024)
• Svensk MeSH

• Paula

• Audio:

  (file)

Palau

1. Palau (a country consisting of around 340 islands in Micronesia, in Oceania)

• Palaulu

Ultimately from Palauan Belau (“Palau”).

Palau

1. Palau (a country consisting of around 340 islands in Micronesia, in Oceania)