Malaysian English - Words With Different Meaning in Malaysian English

Words With Different Meaning in Malaysian English

Some words and phrases used in Malaysia have different meanings than in British or American English.

Word / Phrase Malaysian meaning American / British meaning
parking lot parking space parking garage (US)
photostat a photocopier; also used as a verb meaning "to photocopy" a historical copying machine using a camera and photographic paper, which was superseded by the photocopier. See Photostat machine.
flat low-cost apartment or flat apartment (US)
apartment medium-cost apartment or flat flat (UK)
condominium high-cost apartment or flat commonhold (UK)
to follow to accompany, e.g. "Can I follow you?" meaning "Can I come with you?" or, "I will follow you." meaning "I will come with you." to go after or behind, e.g. "The police car was following me."
to revert to come back (reply) to someone, e.g. "I had sent our clients an email this morning, but they have yet to revert." to return to a previous state, e.g. "We reverted to our initial plan of hosting the party in a restaurant."
to send to take someone somewhere, e.g. "Can you send me to the airport?" to cause something to go somewhere without accompanying it, e.g. "I sent this letter to my grandma."
blur condition of a person who is dazed, confused, appears mentally slow, e.g. "You look very blur right now, take a break." vague, visually indistinct, e.g. "Everything is just a blur when I take my spectacles off."

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