Pencak Silat (pronounced pen-chuck see-lut) is the official name used to indicate more than 800 martial arts schools and styles spread across more than 13,000 islands in Indonesia.

The words Pencak and Silat have the same meanings and are integral parts of the culture of the Malay ethnic group, who are the native inhabitants in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam.

Pencak is commonly used by the people in Java, Madura and Bali, whereas the word Silat is commonly used by the people who live in the other regions of Indonesia as well as in the other Malay regions.

The combination of the words Pencak and Silat into a compound word was made for the first time when an organization uniting all Pencak and Silat perguruans (institutions) in Indonesia was founded in Surakarta on 18 May 1948.

This organization was named Ikatan Pencak Silat Indonesia (Indonesian Pencak Silat Association), abbreviated as IPSI.  Since then, the word Pencak Silat has become the official term in Indonesia.  This term is also used by the perguruans in many different countries which teach Pencak and Silat derived from Indonesia.

there are still people who use the words Pencak and Silat separately as a single word due to the dialectic habit.