Ukrainian

PluralUkrainians

1. 1
   adjective

   Belonging to or characteristic of Ukraine, its people, or their language.

   The museum displayed traditional Ukrainian embroidery gathered from several regions.

   Many Ukrainian families settled in Canada during the early twentieth century.

   Note

   A plain formation from Ukraine and the suffix -ian, the same ending that turns a place into an adjective of belonging. It is an all-or-nothing adjective: nothing is more Ukrainian than something else, so it takes no comparative. Older printing sometimes set it lowercase, as in "the ukrainian peasantry" of William Tooke's View of the Russian Empire (1799), but today it is always capitalized.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A person who holds citizenship of Ukraine or has Ukrainian ethnic heritage.

   Several Ukrainians on the delegation spoke at the international conference.

   As a Ukrainian, she felt proud watching the national team compete abroad.

   Note

   The person noun covers two kinds of belonging: citizenship of Ukraine and Ukrainian ethnicity. So it fits a national of the country and also someone of Ukrainian heritage living elsewhere. It counts like any nationality noun (a Ukrainian, several Ukrainians), and William Tooke in 1799 already uses the plural for a people long accustomed to sending deputies to make their complaints known.

3. 3
   proper noun

   An East Slavic language spoken by Ukrainians and holding official status throughout Ukraine.

   The novel was translated into Ukrainian shortly after its first publication.

   Diplomats conducted the negotiations in both Ukrainian and English.

   Note

   A language name with a contested past. Stepniak's The Russian Peasantry (1888) still calls Ukrainian "Southern Russian," one branch of a single Russian language beside Great Russian, and George Sale and his collaborators in 1762 counted "Ukrainian dialects" among those of Russia. Today it names a language in its own right, the official one of Ukraine. As a language name it takes no article: speak Ukrainian, translate into Ukrainian.

Showing meanings only. Show all 3