# Malaysia

Pronunciation: say "muh-LAY-zhuh" /məˈleɪ̯ʒə/

## Proper noun

1. A Southeast Asian country whose capital is Kuala Lumpur.
   - Simple: A country in Southeast Asia. Its capital city is Kuala Lumpur.
   - _Malaysia shares the island of Borneo with Indonesia and Brunei._
   - _Many tourists visit Malaysia for its beaches and tropical rainforests._

## Proper noun

2. An older name for the Malay Archipelago, the chain of islands lying between mainland Southeast Asia and Australia. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: An old name for the large group of islands between Southeast Asia and Australia.

## Origin

Formed from "Malays" plus the suffix "-ia", amended from the earlier form "Malaya". The "-s" was added to honor the inclusion of Singapore, Sarawak and North Borneo (Sabah) alongside Malaya in the formation of the Federation of Malaysia.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/malaysia (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).