Jenis

Jenis is a word in the Malay and Indonesian languages that means type, kind, or sort. It is used to categorize objects, ideas, or phenomena and appears in everyday speech, media, and official terminology. In compound expressions, jenis modifies a noun to specify a category, for example jenis makanan (types of food), jenis pakaian (types of clothing), or jenis pekerjaan (types of jobs). The phrase jenis-jenis is used to denote a variety of kinds, roughly equivalent to “various kinds” in English. In other contexts, jenis appears in formal classifications, inventories, and data schemas (for example, jenis barang in a catalog or jenis data in a dataset).

As a personal name, Jenis can also serve as a given name in Indonesian and Malaysian communities. When capitalized, it functions as a proper noun; the use as a name is separate from its common noun meaning, though it may prompt clarification in written text.

Origin and usage notes: The term belongs to the Malay–Indonesian lexicon and is cognate across related languages. It is a native word in Southeast Asia and is rarely used outside that regional context except when used as a personal name or in linguistic discussions about language. In everyday Indonesian and Malay, it remains a neutral classifier for categories and types rather than a descriptor of qualities.