

The term Silat Melayu ("Malay silat") is used in reference to the silat systems in the Riau Archipelago and Johor. These organisations are the Pencak Silat Association of Indonesia or Ikatan Pencak Silat Indonesia (IPSI) in Indonesia, Persekutuan Silat Kebangsaan Malaysia (PESAKA) in Malaysia, Persekutuan Silat Brunei Darussalam (PERSIB) in Brunei, and Persekutuan Silat Singapura (PERSISI) in Singapore. Training halls are overseen by separate national organisations in each of the main countries where the art is practised. Pencak silat first made its debut in the 1987 Southeast Asian Games and 2018 Asian Games, both of which were held in Indonesia. Pencak silat is one of the sports included in the Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) and other region-wide competitions. Regional dialect names including penca in Sundanese, silek in Minangkabau, main-po or maen po in the lower speech of Sundanese, gayong or gayung in parts of Sumatra, Singapore, and Malaysia, dika or padik in Southern Thailand and silat in Southern Philippines. The term Pencak silat was adopted globally in reference to silat being performed as professional competitive sport, similar to wushu.

The word silat is used by Malay-speaking countries throughout Southeast Asia, but is officially called Pencak silat in Indonesia. Full-contact, semi-contact, light-contact
