orang

Orang is a noun in Malay and Indonesian meaning "person" or "people." It serves as a general term for a human being and is used without implying a specific ethnicity or social status, relying on context to convey meaning. In both languages, orang can be used with numerals to indicate count, as in dua orang or tiga orang, and can be repeated for emphasis as orang-orang to denote people in general or a group.

The word is found in many compound expressions. For example, orang kaya means a wealthy person, orang tua refers to an elder or parent, and orang kampung can denote a local villager. The phrase orang asli designates the indigenous peoples of Peninsular Malaysia, though the capitalization may vary.

Orang is a basic lexical item across Malay-speaking areas and has cognates across Austronesian languages. Its widespread use extends to toponyms and ethnonyms when referring to people from a place, such as orang Bali or orang Minangkabau.

Because orang is widely used in other words, it is important not to confuse it with orangutan, a separate term referring to the great ape whose name derives from the same root (orang meaning person and hutan meaning forest).