Maldivian is the word for the people and things of the Maldives: a small country of many low islands in the Indian Ocean, south-west of Sri Lanka, with its capital at Malé. Visitors know the place for white beaches and clear water, so you will hear Maldivian in holiday talk — Maldivian islands, Maldivian food, a Maldivian guest-house. A Maldivian is also a person from there. Though actually, the land sits so close to the sea that a rise in the water could cover much of it, and that is why Maldivian also turns up in news about the heated planet, not only in travel adverts. Some people use Maldivian for the main language of the islands too, though many now say Dhivehi. It is a plain “from that country” word, like Indian or Italian; nothing fancy about it.