Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A Sinhalese.
  • noun The Sinhalese language.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun The indigenous language of the majourity people of Sri Lanka.
  • proper noun An ancient name for the island of Sri Lanka.
  • proper noun The kingdom in the island of Sri Lanka mentioned in the Mahabharata.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the Indic language spoken by the people of Sri Lanka
  • adjective of or relating to the Sinhalese languages

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Sinhala Sin̥hala, from Sanskrit siṁhalaḥ, Sri Lanka, from siṁhaḥ, lion (perhaps from the former presence of lions there).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Sanskrit सिंहल (siṃhala), from सिंह (siṃhá, "lion") + suffix -la that is speculatively connected to Sanskrit verbal root √lā ("to seize") and thus the phrase would originally mean "lion-seizer" or "lion-killer", or it could be connected to Sanskrit लोह (lohá, "blood") which would then render the phrase as "lion blood". The only thing that can with certainty be said is that this word is somehow connected with the term for lion.

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Examples

  • Besides, Tamils have more rights in Sri Lanka than back home in their monther-land India (eg. everything in SL is in English, Sinhala, Tamil).

    Yahoo! News: Top Stories 2010

  • Sept 05, 2010 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's Asia Broadcasting Corporation radio network said it has started text message news alerts of in English, Sinhala and Tamil languages to Dialog Telekom subscribers.

    LBO-Lanka Business Online 2010

  • The SMS service is offered in English, Sinhala and Tamil, the three languages spoken in the island, on mobile phones that have the unicode function, Sameera Wijerathna at Dialog Telekom said.

    LBO-Lanka Business Online 2009

  • So I think one important thing to realise is that the social historical evidence, in my opinion at least, is that at the beginning of the 19th century, we didn't have in Sri Lanka the kind of communities that today we call Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim.

    Kottu 2009

  • This mobile library takes books in turns to a cluster of schools so that every child gets a chance to read 25 to 30 books - in English, Sinhala and Tamil - at a time.

    unknown title 2009

  • I've been reading a lot about ethnic conflict this week to prepare for two presentations I'm giving next month, but rather than quote something, I'd like to point you to two related links that came my way today: is a set of video clips in English, Sinhala and Tamil that commemorate the 25th anniversary of the

    Jackfruity 2008

  • * versatile Java-enabled mobile phones set up to receive text alerts in English, Sinhala, and Tamil;

    innovations-report 2008

  • Thus in order to explain why Ceylon is called Sinhala, Vijaya is made the grandson of an Indian princess who lived with a lion.

    Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 3 Charles Eliot 1896

  • In that very year, Solomon Bandaranayake, the country's first prime minister, made Sinhala, which is spoken by the majority of Sri Lankans, the official language.

    AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE) 2009

  • In that very year, Solomon Bandaranayake, the country's first prime minister, made Sinhala, which is spoken by the majority of Sri Lankans, the official language.

    AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (AJE) 2009

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