Tetun English Dictionary

About Tetun English Dictionary

Tetun-English interactive dictionary
By Catharina Williams-van Klinken
© Dili Institute of Technology 2023. ISBN: 978-989-8615-23-7 (Fourth edition)

Tetun is one of the two official languages of East Timor. The variety of Tetun in this dictionary is sometimes called ‘Tetun Dili’, after the capital city. It is widely used in national public life, and as a language of inter-cultural communication.

A quick glance at the dictionary will show that Tetun Dili has incorporated many words from Portuguese, which is the other official language in East Timor and the language of colonial rule until 1975. The dictionary also includes some words from Indonesian, the language of colonial rule from 1975-1999. Although many people avoid Indonesian loans in formal situations, they are still commonly used by some speakers.

Like all languages, different words are used in different contexts. This dictionary attempts to give an approximate usage, using terms such as ‘educated’, ‘Port’ for ‘heavily Portuguese-influenced’, ‘Indon’ for ‘Indonesian-influenced’ and ‘informal’.

This interactive dictionary is a work in progress. It contains over 14,300 Tetun headwords plus 1,380 sub-entries, and 15,500 English entries. There are over 6,750 cross-references to related words, such as words with similar or opposite meaning, and 3,340 example sentences.

The dictionary was produced by Catharina Williams-van Klinken, with input from numerous people. Major contributors are listed in the 'About' tab of the app.

This publication can be downloaded from the Dili Institute of Technology Centre for Language Studies website on www.tetundit.tl, or from Google Playstore.