Malays (Malay: Melayu Jawi: ملايو) are an ethnic group of Austronesian people predominantly inhabiting the Malay Peninsula including the southernmost parts of Thailand, south coast Myanmar and island of Singapore, coastal Indonesian including east of Sumatra, coastal Borneo, including Brunei, coastal Sarawak and Sabah, and the smaller islands which lie between these locations. These locations today is part of the modern nations of Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Southern Myanmar, Southern Thailand and Western Indonesia.

Today, the common identity that binds Malay people together is their language (with variant of dialects exist among them), Islam and their culture; although in the past Malay people were largely animist and Hindu-Buddhist before conversion to Islam took place in the 15th century. Malay culture has a number of similarities with cultures of neighboring ethnic groups, such as those of Minang culture, Aceh, and to some degree Javanese culture; however it differs by being more overtly Islamic than the Javanese culture.