multiethnic

See also: multi-ethnic

English

Alternative forms

• multi-ethnic

Etymology

From multi- +‎ ethnic.

Adjective

multiethnic (comparative more multiethnic, superlative most multiethnic)

1. Of, pertaining to, or consisting of several ethnic groups.
   • 1993, Alexander J. Motyl, Dilemmas of Independence: Ukraine After Totalitarianism:

     In general, they are propagating the image of Ukrainians as the European descendants of good peasant stock, of multiethnic pioneers, and of an ancient multiethnic state.

   • 2019, Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, →DOI, page 3:

     As a multicultural and multiethnic society, Singapore has four official languages: Malay, Mandarin, Tamil, and English, with Malay considered the national language and English as a nominally neutral ‘working language’ allowing communication across all communities.

Usage notes

In 2006 British anthropological surveys by Peter J. Aspinall et al, out of 311 student respondents who identified as “mixed race” and 15 who did not, seven found the term “multiethnic” offensive and 23 indicated it was a preferred term.

Derived terms

• multiethnicity

Translations

of, pertaining to, or consisting of several ethnic groups

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 多民族 (zh) (duōmínzú)

• Esperanto: pluretna
• Estonian: paljurahvuseline
• Finnish: monikansallinen (fi), monietninen (fi)
• French: multiethnique (fr) m or f
• German: multiethnisch (de)
• Irish: il-eitneach
• Norman: multiéthnique
• Russian: мультиэтни́ческий (ru) (mulʹtietníčeskij), многонациона́льный (ru) (mnogonacionálʹnyj)

Noun

multiethnic (plural multiethnics)

1. A member of more than one ethnic group.