Word.ws English Dictionary

bongo

/ˈbɒŋ.ɡəʊ/US/ˈbɑŋ.ɡoʊ/

bongo noun: a striped bovine mammal found in Africa, Tragelaphus eurycerus.

bongo: a striped bovine mammal found in Africa, Tragelaphus eurycerus
Image: Joanne Merriam, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

bongo (plural bongos)

  1. A striped bovine mammal found in Africa, Tragelaphus eurycerus.

Noun (2)

bongo (plural bongos or bongoes)

  1. Either of a pair of small drums of Cuban origin, played by beating with the hands.
    • He's banging on the bongos like a chimpanzee.1984, Dire Straits (band), Money for Nothing (song)
    Synonyms:
    bongo drum

Verb

bongo (third-person singular simple present bongos, present participle bongoing, simple past and past participle bongoed)

  1. (intransitive) To play the bongo drums.
  2. (intransitive) Of the heart, etc.: to beat with an irregular rhythm.
  3. (transitive) To hit something rhythmically with the hands.

Proper noun capitalized: Bongo

Bongo

  1. A Central Sudanic language spoken by the Bongo people in sparsely populated areas of Bahr al Ghazal in South Sudan.
    Synonyms:
    Bungu, Dor
  2. A gewog of Chhukha District, Bhutan.

Noun (3) capitalized: Bongo

Bongo pl (plural only)

  1. (plural, plural-only) An ethnic group living at the eastern side of the Albert Nile River in northwestern Uganda and in neighbouring South Sudan in small, scattered settlements south and east of Wau.
  2. (plural, plural-only) An agricultural people of Gabon in equatorial Africa.
    Synonyms:
    Babongo, Bazimba

bongo meaning in Tamil and Marathi

bongo in Tamil

மான் இனங்களுள் ஒன்றாகும், இதுவும் ஒரு சிற்றினம் ஆகும்

bongo in Marathi

mammal
बोंगो boṅgo, बाँगो bŏṅgo
drum
बाँगो bŏṅgo

Synonyms of bongo

Forms of bongo

Noun
pluralbongos
pluralbongoes
Verb
third-person singular presentbongos
present participlebongoing
past participlebongoed
pastbongoed

Plural of bongo: bongos

Origin of bongo

From Spanish bongo.

From United States Spanish bongó, from a Bantu language; probably Ekele boungu.

Words formed from bongo

Phrases with bongo

Words that rhyme with bongo

Questions about bongo

What does bongo mean?
Bongo means a striped bovine mammal found in Africa, Tragelaphus eurycerus.
What is bongo in Tamil?
Bongo in Tamil is மான் இனங்களுள் ஒன்றாகும், இதுவும் ஒரு சிற்றினம் ஆகும். See Bongo meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is bongo?
Bongo can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce bongo?
Bongo is pronounced /ˈbɒŋ.ɡəʊ/ (UK).
What is the plural of bongo?
The plural of bongo is bongos.

Words near bongo in the dictionary

  1. bongkrekate
  2. bongkrekates
  3. bongkrekic acid
  4. Bongland
  5. Bonglish
  6. bongo
  7. Bongo Bongo Land
  8. bongo drum
  9. bongo drums
  10. bongo flava
  11. bongo mag

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bongo (page history and authors); Bongo (page history and authors); bongo (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-bongo.wav.

Cite this entry: “bongo.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bongo. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.