SWAHILI

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Swahili mean? 

• SWAHILI (noun)
  The noun SWAHILI has 1 sense:

1. the most widely spoken Bantu languages; the official language of Kenya and Tanzania and widely used as a lingua franca in east and central Africa

  Familiarity information: SWAHILI used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SWAHILI (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The most widely spoken Bantu languages; the official language of Kenya and Tanzania and widely used as a lingua franca in east and central Africa

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("Swahili" is a kind of...):

Bantoid language; Bantu (a family of languages widely spoken in the southern half of the African continent)

Domain member category:

kanzu ((Swahili) a long garment (usually white) with long sleeves; worn by men in East Africa)

Niger-Kordofanian; Niger-Kordofanian language (the family of languages that includes most of the languages spoken in Africa south of the Sahara; the majority of them are tonal languages but there are important exceptions (e.g., Swahili or Fula))

 Context examples 

The new dinosaur is called Shingopana songwensis, derived from the Swahili term shingopana for wide neck; the fossils were discovered in the Songwe region of the Great Rift Valley in southwestern Tanzania.

(Paleontologists discover new species of sauropod dinosaur in Tanzania, National Science Foundation)

The newly discovered animal is called Pakakali rukwaensis, the name derived from the Swahili term pakakali, meaning fierce cat, and rukwaensis, the word for the Rukwa Rift region of the Great Rift Valley in southwestern Tanzania.

(Fossil discovery in Tanzania reveals ancient bobcat-sized carnivore, National Science Foundation)

Its name is derived from the Swahili term for "animal of the Mtuka (with) a heart-shaped tail," in reference to the riverbed (Mtuka) in which it was discovered and the unique shape of its tail bones.

(New dinosaur with heart-shaped tail offers clues to evolution of Africa's ecosystems, National Science Foundation)