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INDONESIAN · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

mantan.

former (position holders, positions, etc); ex-

6 characters2 syllables approx.Bahasa Indonesia language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈmantan/

  1. former (position holders, positions, etc); ex-

    mantan kepala sekolah
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Besemah mantan, possibly from Old Javanese mantĕn. Coined by Indonesian linguist and cultural activist Ahmad Bastari Suan in 1984 as an alternative to the Dutch loanword eks, as well as the native form bekas, which had a pejorative connotation.

noun/ˈmantan/

  1. a former significant other

    informal
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Besemah mantan, possibly from Old Javanese mantĕn. Coined by Indonesian linguist and cultural activist Ahmad Bastari Suan in 1984 as an alternative to the Dutch loanword eks, as well as the native form bekas, which had a pejorative connotation.

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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.