indic

indic — adjective

  • indicpositive
  • more indiccomparative
  • most indicsuperlative

1. relating to the large region of South Asia that includes India, Pakistan, Bangla

1.形容詞C2
釋義

relating to the large region of South Asia that includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and the Maldives — used especially in the study of history, culture, and religion.

例句

The museum's new hall displays Indic sculptures from the Gupta period.

Wei spent two years studying the history of early Indic kingdoms along the Indus River.

indic + noun: kingdoms / art / culture

同義詞
  • Indian

    more common and refers specifically to the modern nation of India; 'Indic' is broader and more scholarly

  • South Asian

    even broader — includes countries beyond the traditional Indic region, such as Afghanistan and the Maldives

文法句型

indic + noun

用法筆記

Frequently used in academic contexts such as 'Indic studies' or 'Indic religions'. Distinguish from sense 2: sense 1 covers the geographic and cultural region, not specifically the language family.

常見錯誤

❌Indic food is very spicy.
✅Indian food is very spicy.
💡'Indic' refers to the broader ancient subcontinent; 'Indian' is the modern nationality term and is more common in everyday speech.

2. belonging to the group of Indo-European languages spoken across northern and cen

2.形容詞C2
釋義

belonging to the group of Indo-European languages spoken across northern and central India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka — including Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Urdu, Marathi, and Gujarati.

例句

Hindi, Bengali, and Punjabi are all modern Indic languages spoken by hundreds of millions of people.

Dr. Okafor compared the grammar of several Indic languages to trace their shared origins.

indic + noun: languages / branch / scripts

同義詞
  • Indo-Aryan

    the most common term in modern linguistics; nearly interchangeable with 'Indic' in this sense

  • Indo-Iranian

    broader — includes Iranian languages (Persian, Pashto) as well as Indo-Aryan languages

反義詞
  • Dravidian

    the major non-Indic language family of South India, including Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam

  • non-Indic

    refers to languages of India not in the Indo-Aryan branch

文法句型

indic + noun (linguistic term)

用法筆記

Almost exclusively used in linguistics. The term 'Indo-Aryan' is a near-synonym, though 'Indo-Aryan' more narrowly refers to the subgroup that includes languages like Hindi and Bengali, while 'Indic' can also include Dardic and Nuristani branches in some classifications.

常見錯誤

❌Tamil is an Indic language.
✅Tamil is a Dravidian language, not an Indic language.
💡'Indic' refers to the Indo-Aryan branch of Indo-European; Dravidian languages (Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam) belong to a different family.