pontianak

P3O1N1T1I1A1N1A1K5

noun

A female vampiric ghost in Malaysian and Indonesian mythology, said to be the spirit of a woman who died while pregnant.

OriginMalay puntianak →
RareScrabble 15
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

pontianak1

nounpontianak (countable and uncountable, plural pontianaks)

plural pontianaks

  1. countableA female vampiric ghost in Malaysian and Indonesian mythology, said to be the spirit of a woman who died while pregnant.

    One of the most fearsome creatures of Malay folklore is the pontianak.

    2009, Andrew Hock-Soon Ng, “"Death and the Maide": The Pontianak as Excess in Malay Popular Culture”, in John Edgar Browning, Caroline Joan Picart, editors, Draculas, Vampires, and Other Undead Forms: Essays on Gender, Race and Culture
  2. alternativecountableuncountableAlternative form of pontianac (“fossil resin”).

Pontianak2

proper noun

alternative Pontianac

  1. The capital and largest city of West Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Origin

pontianak · noun

  1. Malaypuntianak
  2. Englishpontianak

Borrowed from Malay puntianak.

More words from Malay

Full word history & related roots →

Pontianak · proper noun

  1. IndonesianPontianak
  2. EnglishPontianak

From Indonesian Pontianak, named for the pontianaks which were popularly thought to have once inhabited the site.

More words from Indonesian

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Chinese Mandarin 坤甸
  • 坤甸 (Kūndiàn)Indonesian city on Kalimantan
Indonesian Pontianak
  • PontianakIndonesian city on Kalimantan
Cite this entry
APA

pontianak. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pontianak

MLA

“pontianak.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pontianak. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pontianak,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pontianak.

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