Dahomey
/dəˈhəʊmi/US/dəˈhoʊmi/
Dahomey proper noun: a former kingdom in West Africa, existing from c. 1600–1904 and located in the southern part of present-day Benin.
Proper noun
Dahomey
- A former kingdom in West Africa, existing from c. 1600–1904 and located in the southern part of present-day Benin.
- The way other children hear tell of Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks, I heard of this ‘Black Sparta’, the noble kingdom of Dahomey, fighting to hold off the French to the very end.2016, Zadie Smith, Swing Time, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Press, →ISBN, pages 360–361
- Former name of Benin: a country in West Africa; used from 1958–1975. Official name: Republic of Dahomey.
Dahomey meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Bengali
Dahomey in Hindi
- former country in Africa
- डाहोमी ḍāhomī
Dahomey in Tamil
- former country in Africa
- டஹோமி ṭahōmi
Dahomey in Marathi
- former country in Africa
- दहोमी dahomī
Dahomey in Bengali
- former country in Africa
- দাহোমি dahōmi
More languagesFewer languages
- Dahomey in Telugu
- దాహోమీ dāhōmī
- Dahomey in Arabic
- دَاهُومَيّ dāhūmayy
- Dahomey in Malay
- Dahomey
- Dahomey in Indonesian
- Dahomey
- Dahomey in Persian
- داهومی dâhomêy
- Dahomey in Thai
- ดาโฮมีย์ daa-hoo-mii
- Dahomey in Vietnamese
- Dahomey
Origin of Dahomey
From Fon dã homè (“belly of Dã; snake's belly”).
Words formed from Dahomey
Questions about Dahomey
- What does Dahomey mean?
- Dahomey means a former kingdom in West Africa, existing from c. 1600–1904 and located in the southern part of present-day Benin.
- What is Dahomey in Hindi?
- Dahomey in Hindi is डाहोमी (ḍāhomī). See Dahomey meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is Dahomey?
- Dahomey is a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce Dahomey?
- Dahomey is pronounced /dəˈhəʊmi/ (UK).
Words near Dahomey in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Dahomey (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-Dahomey.wav.
Cite this entry: “Dahomey.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dahomey. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.