Indo-European

[ in-doh-yoo r-uh-pee-uh n ]
/ ˈɪn doʊˌyʊər əˈpi ən /

noun

a large, widespread family of languages, the surviving branches of which include Italic, Slavic, Baltic, Hellenic, Celtic, Germanic, and Indo-Iranian, spoken by about half the world's population: English, Spanish, German, Latin, Greek, Russian, Albanian, Lithuanian, Armenian, Persian, Hindi, and Hittite are all Indo-European languages. Compare family(def 14).
Proto-Indo-European(def 1).
a member of any of the peoples speaking an Indo-European language.

adjective

of or belonging to Indo-European.
speaking an Indo-European language: an Indo-European people.

Origin of Indo-European

First recorded in 1805–15

OTHER WORDS FROM Indo-European

non-In·do-Eu·ro·pe·an, adjective, noun

Example sentences from the Web for indo-european

British Dictionary definitions for indo-european

Indo-European

adjective

denoting, belonging to, or relating to a family of languages that includes English and many other culturally and politically important languages of the world: a characteristic feature, esp of the older languages such as Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit, is inflection showing gender, number, and case
denoting or relating to the hypothetical parent language of this family, primitive Indo-European
denoting, belonging to, or relating to any of the peoples speaking these languages

noun