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INDONESIAN · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

apa.

what (interrogative)

3 characters2 syllables approx.Bahasa Indonesia language

Meaning & usage

det/ˈapa/Standard-Indonesian[ˈa.pa]Standard-Indonesian
  1. what (interrogative)

    Kamu makan apa?
  2. what (indirect interrogative)

    Saya bertanya-tanya tujuan apa yang ingin dia raih
  3. do (question marker)

    colloquial
  4. do (question marker) Apa dia ngerti? Does he understand? Apa dia ngerti?

    colloquial
  5. do (question marker) Apa dia ngerti? Does he understand? Does he understand?

    colloquial
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Malay apa, from Proto-Malayic *apa, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *apa. The sense 3 as a determiner is a clipping of apakah.

pron/ˈapa/Standard-Indonesian[ˈa.pa]Standard-Indonesian
  1. what (interrogative)

    Nama tempatnya apa?
  2. what (fused relative)

    Dia kuasai betul apa yang dia gemari sejak kecil.
    Apa yang kau simpan itu punyaku.
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Malay apa, from Proto-Malayic *apa, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *apa. The sense 3 as a determiner is a clipping of apakah.

intj/ˈapa/Standard-Indonesian[ˈa.pa]Standard-Indonesian
  1. what?

    Apa? Kucing kita sedang melahirkan?
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Malay apa, from Proto-Malayic *apa, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *apa. The sense 3 as a determiner is a clipping of apakah.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.