palau

P3A1L1A1U1
Australia, UK, US/pəˈlaʊ/

proper noun

A country consisting of around 340 islands in Micronesia, in Oceania. Official name: Republic of Palau. Capital: Ngerulmud.

Similar
mul:PWmul:PLW
CommonScrabble 7

Meanings

palau1

nounpalau (countable and uncountable, plural palaus)

plural palaus

  1. alternativecountableuncountableAlternative spelling of pilaf (“dish of browned rice etc.”).

Palau2

proper noun
  1. A country consisting of around 340 islands in Micronesia, in Oceania. Official name: Republic of Palau. Capital: Ngerulmud.
    5 more examples

    Another society in which wealth per se was highly valued was Palau, but wealth belonging to descent units and not to individuals.[…] Palau society was divided into a large number of individually named, exogamous matriclans, and these were in turn subdivided into named matrilineages, each of which was a land-owning corporation and localized within a single community.

    1989, Douglas L. Oliver, “Social Relations”, in Native Cultures of the Pacific Islands, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 146

    The president of Palau declared Tuesday that his Pacific island nation will ban commercial fishing and become a marine sanctuary.[…] Remengesau said establishing “a 100 percent marine sanctuary” will enable Palau to preserve “a pristine environment” and promote snorkeling, scuba diving and ecotourism as an alternative way to grow its economy.

    2014 February 5, Edith M. Lederer, “Palau to ban commercial fishing, promote tourism”, in AP News, archived from the original on 19 Jul 2023

    Few places on the planet are as isolated as Palau, or as sprawling. Its 21,000 residents are scattered across a handful of its 250 islands, which take up just 177 square miles combined. Relatively poor, and with no military of its own, Palau employs a marine police division with just 18 members and one patrol ship.

    2016 February 17, Ian Urbina, “Palau vs. the Poachers”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 17 Feb 2016

    Fully 99% of Palau's population over 12 has had both shots of vaccine for the new coronavirus, the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) said, citing government figures which also show that this amounts to 16,152 people. That puts Palau, an archipelago of 500 islands in the western Pacific Ocean, in the "top spot", the IFRC said in a statement, ahead of countries like Portugal which was named one of the world's most vaccinated countries when 80% of its 10 million people were fully immunized last month.

    2021 October 14, Byron Kaye, “Tiny Pacific nation beats the world with 99% COVID vaccination, says Red Cross”, in Raju Gopalakrishnan, editor, Reuters, archived from the original on 14 Oct 2021, Asia Pacific

    While in Palau, Lai delivered a speech at its legislature and plans to open a government building complex that Taiwan helped to build. On Friday, Taiwan and Palau are set to conduct a joint maritime rescue drill, with Taiwan’s coast guard sending one of its newest domestically-made vessels from its southern port of Kaohsiung, in a possible rehearsal for showdowns with Chinese coast guard vessels in disputed regional waters.

    2024 December 5, Joyu Wang, Austin Ramzy, “Beijing Has Picked Off Taiwan’s Remaining Allies. Taiwan Is Fighting Back.”, in The Wall Street Journal, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 06 Dec 2024

    Synonyms: mul:PW, mul:PLW

Synonyms & antonyms

proper nounA country consisting of around 340 islands in Micronesia, in Oceania. Official name: Republic of Palau. Capital: Ngerulmud.

Similar
mul:PWmul:PLW

Origin

  1. Proto-Malayo-Polynesian*banua“inhabited land, territory”
  2. PalauanBelau“Palau”
  3. EnglishPalau

Borrowed from Palauan Belau (“Palau”), traditionally derived from aidebelau (“indirect replies”) in reference to the island's creation story, or from beluu (“village”), from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *banua (“inhabited land, territory”).

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Afrikaans Palau, Belau
  • PalauRepublic of Palau
  • BelauRepublic of Palau
Arabic بَالَاو
  • بَالَاو (balāw)Republic of Palau
Bengali পালাউ
  • পালাউ (palau)Republic of Palau
Bulgarian Палау
  • Палау (Palau)Republic of Palau
Catalan Palau
  • PalauRepublic of Palau
Chinese Mandarin 帕勞 /帕劳, 帛琉
  • 帕勞 /帕劳 (Pàláo)Republic of Palau
  • 帛琉 (Bóliú)Republic of Palau
Czech Palau
  • PalauRepublic of Palau
Danish Palau
  • PalauRepublic of Palau
Dutch Palau
  • PalauRepublic of Palau
Esperanto Belaŭo, Palaŭo
  • BelaŭoRepublic of Palau
  • PalaŭoRepublic of Palau
Estonian Belau, Palau
  • BelauRepublic of Palau
  • PalauRepublic of Palau
Finnish Palau
  • PalauRepublic of Palau
French Belau, Palau
  • BelauRepublic of Palau
  • PalauRepublic of Palau
  • PalaosRepublic of Palau
German Palau
  • PalauRepublic of Palau
Greek Παλάου
  • Παλάου (Paláou)Republic of Palau
Hindi पलाउ
  • पलाउ (palāu)Republic of Palau
Hungarian Palau
  • PalauRepublic of Palau
Icelandic Palaú
  • PalaúRepublic of Palau
Indonesian Palau
  • PalauRepublic of Palau
Irish Oileáin Palau
  • Oileáin PalauRepublic of Palau
Italian Palau
  • PalauRepublic of Palau
Japanese パラオ
  • パラオ (Parao)Republic of Palau
Korean 팔라우, 벨라우
  • 팔라우 (Pallau)Republic of Palau
  • 벨라우 (Bellau)Republic of Palau
Lithuanian Palau
  • PalauRepublic of Palau
Malay Palau
  • PalauRepublic of Palau
Norwegian Bokmål Palau
  • PalauRepublic of Palau
Polish Palau, Belau
  • PalauRepublic of Palau
  • BelauRepublic of Palau
Portuguese Palau
  • PalauRepublic of Palau
Romanian Palau
  • PalauRepublic of Palau
Russian Пала́у
  • Пала́у (Paláu)Republic of Palau
Spanish Palaos
  • PalaosRepublic of Palau
Swedish Palau
  • PalauRepublic of Palau
Thai ปาเลา
  • ปาเลา (bpaa-lao)Republic of Palau
Turkish Palau
  • PalauRepublic of Palau
Vietnamese Pa-lau
  • Pa-lauRepublic of Palau

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with palau

All rhymes →

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

palau. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/palau

MLA

“palau.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/palau. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “palau,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/palau.

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