List of English words of Australian Aboriginal origin

This is a list of English words derived from Australian Aboriginal languages. Some are restricted to Australian English as a whole or to certain regions of the country. Others, such as kangaroo and boomerang, have become widely used in other varieties of English, and some have been borrowed into other languages beyond English.

Flora and fauna

ballart
barramundi
bilby
bindii
bogong
boobook
brigalow
brolga
budgerigar
bunyip
burdardu
coolabah
koala
kookaburra
kurrajong
kutjera
mallee
marri
mihirung
mulga
Myall
numbat
pademelon
potoroo
quandong
quokka
quoll
taipan
wallaby
wallaroo
waratah)
gilgai
lerp (crystallized honeydew produced by larvae of psyllid bugs, gathered as food)
min-min lights (ground-level lights of uncertain origin sometimes seen in remote rural Australia)
willy willy (dust devil)

Aboriginal culture

alcheringa
bingy (pron. binji) belly, esp. in bingy-button=navel
boomerang
bunyip
Yara-ma-yha-who

Describing words

Koori - Aboriginal people from Victoria and New South Wales
cooee
Nunga - Aboriginal people from South Australia
Murri - Aboriginal people from Queensland
Noongar - Aboriginal people from southern Western Australia
Palawa - Aboriginal people from Tasmania
yarndi (slang term for marijuana)

Place names

Names

Kylie (Noongar word for "throwing stick")

English words often falsely assumed to be of Australian Aboriginal origin

bandicoot (from the Telugu, pandikokku a term originally referring to the unrelated bandicoot rat)
cockabully (from Māori kokopu)
cockatoo (from Malay)
didgeridoo (possibly from Irish or Scottish Gaelic dúdaire duh or dúdaire dúth [both /d̪u:d̪ɪrɪ d̪u:/] "black piper" or "native piper")
emu (from Arabic, via Portuguese, for large bird)
goanna (corruption of the Taíno iguana)
jabiru (from Tupi–Guarani via Spanish, originally referred to an American bird)
nullarbor (Latin for no tree)'