Asian describes people, cultures, or things from Asia, the world's largest continent. Asia stretches from Turkey in the west to Japan in the east, from Siberia in the north to Indonesia in the south. It includes dozens of countries like China, India, Japan, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, and many others.

When someone says they're Asian, they might mean their family comes from any of these places. A student whose grandparents immigrated from Korea is Asian. So is a classmate whose parents came from Pakistan, or another whose family is from Vietnam. The word covers an enormous range of cultures, languages, and traditions because Asia is home to more than half the world's population.

In the United States, people often use Asian to refer specifically to East Asian countries (like China, Japan, and Korea) or Southeast Asian countries (like Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines), though technically the term includes people from all parts of Asia. Someone from India might be called South Asian to be more specific.

The word can also describe things: Asian cuisine includes everything from Japanese sushi to Indian curry to Thai noodles. Asian art, Asian languages, and Asian history are all vast subjects because they cover so many different countries and cultures across such an enormous part of the world.