Lanyu

Lan·yu
L1A1N1Y4U1

proper noun

A mountain indigenous township of Taitung County, Taiwan, primarily made up of Orchid Island (Lanyu).

Similar
Orchid IslandBotel Tobago
Scrabble 8

Meanings

proper noun

alternative also Lan-yü

  1. A mountain indigenous township of Taitung County, Taiwan, primarily made up of Orchid Island (Lanyu).

    Chile's Easter Island and Lanyu Township in Taitung County forged sisterhood relations Friday through the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in Lanyu Friday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Saturday.

    2018 August 4, “Easter Island, Lanyu Township forge sisterhood ties: MOFA”, in Focus Taiwan, archived from the original on 01 Feb 2025
    1 more example

    Lanyu Township is the only place in Taitung County that hasn't started receiving applications of the financial relief subsidy program, leading to complaints from residents about being second-class citizens.[…] At present, the only township in the county that hasn't begun processing applications is Lanyu Township, much to the dismay of residents.

    未受理紓困方案 蘭嶼民眾質疑是二等公民

    2020 May 8, C. Chuang, “Lanyu Township to Begin Accepting Grant Applications After Delay [未受理紓困方案 蘭嶼民眾質疑是二等公民]”, in Public Television Service, archived from the original on 14 Sep 2023

    Synonyms: Orchid Island, Botel Tobago

  2. Synonym of Orchid Island.

    It was discovered that many species, especially those considered endemic to southern Formosa or Lanyu (Botel Tobago), are synonymous with certain generally widespread species of the Philippine Islands, especially of Luzon and the northern small islands.

    1953 April, Hui-Lin Li, “Floristic Interchanges Between Formosa and the Philippines”, in Pacific Science, volume VII, page 182
    4 more examples

    Oluanpi's lighthouse looks toward Lanyu, or Orchid Island, a tiny, rocky protuberance sixty-eight miles to the southeast and important because it is the home of the Yami, the smallest and most primitive tribe of aborigines in Taiwan. Isolated by geography, the Yami have been able to preserve their distinctive traditions and culture, living, farming, and fishing as their ancestors did countless hundreds of years ago from small, double-prowed boats covered with intricate carving and brilliant decoration. Adventurous tourists can now fly to Lanyu from Taitung.

    1979 November, Irene Corbally Kuhn, “Gourmet Holidays Taiwan”, in Gourmet, volume XXXIX, number 11, page 164

    Pointing to the great pains the government has taken to assure that every community in Taiwan has at least one telephone, Lien said that in one case, the Taiwan Telecommunications Administration spent NT$13 million (US$325,000) to have a telephone booth installed in a remote village on Lanyu (Orchid Island) off the coast of eastern Taiwan.

    1982 October 17, “Telephones reach all villages ROC forges ahead in communications”, in Free China Weekly, volume XXIII, number 41, Taipei, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1

    A volcanic island covered with a carpet of tropical rainforest, Lanyu lies about 65km southeast of the city of Taitung, making it the southernmost outpost of Taiwan. Lanyu's status as a far-flung outpost isn't merely geographical, but cultural as well, as the island is by far the least Chinese part of Taiwan.

    2014, Robert Kelly, Chung Wah Chow, Taiwan, 9th edition, Lonely Planet, →ISBN, page 308

    The waste site in Lanyu, also known as Orchid Island, or Ponso no Tao, has been among the highest-profile causes taken up by Indigenous Taiwanese, who were the main inhabitants of these islands until four centuries ago, when colonial settlers began arriving from mainland China, Europe and, later, imperial Japan.

    2023 January 5, Amy Qin, Amy Chang Chien, “The Nuclear Dump That Created a Generation of Indigenous Activists”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 05 Jan 2023

    Synonyms: Orchid Island

Synonyms & antonyms

proper nounA mountain indigenous township of Taitung County, Taiwan, primarily made up of Orchid Island (Lanyu).

Similar
Orchid IslandBotel Tobago

proper nounSynonym of Orchid Island.

Origin

  1. Mandarin蘭嶼
  2. EnglishLanyu

From Mandarin 蘭嶼 (Lányǔ) Wade–Giles romanization: Lan²-yü³.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Chinese Cantonese 蘭嶼 /兰屿
  • 蘭嶼 /兰屿 (laan⁴ zeoi⁶)island
Chinese Mandarin 蘭嶼 /兰屿
  • 蘭嶼 /兰屿 (Lányǔ)island

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

Lanyu. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Lanyu

MLA

“Lanyu.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Lanyu. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Lanyu,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Lanyu.

Source: Lanyu on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.