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Syllable division derived from spelling — this word is not in the pronouncing dictionary, so no phonetic transcription is shown rather than a guessed one.
papuan is a noun and adjective meaning "a native or inhabitant of Papua New Guinea or New Guinea". It carries 3 recorded senses.
a native or inhabitant of Papua New Guinea or New Guinea
any of the indigenous languages spoken in Papua New Guinea or New Britain or the Solomon Islands that are not Malayo-Polynesian languages
of or relating to Papua or its people or language
“Papuan native crafts”
“Papuan vowels”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for papuan come from Princeton University’s WordNet. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.