donga
UK/ˈdɒŋɡə/US/ˈdɔŋɡə/
donga noun: a usually dry, eroded watercourse running only in times of heavy rain. Also the alternative spelling of donger.
Noun (1)
donga (plural dongas)
- A usually dry, eroded watercourse running only in times of heavy rain.
- Major Pack-Beresford and other officers were shot down, and every unhorsed man remained necessarily as a prisoner under the very muzzles of the riflemen in the donga.1900, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Halt at Bloemfontein”, in The Great Boer War, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 349
- There were trenches for us men, but no place of safety for our horses nearer than this long and narrow donga which ran from within our lines towards those of the Boers.1901, Ernest William Hornung, “The Knees of the Gods”, in Raffles: Further Adventures of the Amateur Cracksman, Charles Scribner’s Sons, page 284
Noun (2)
Australia/dɔŋə/
donga (plural dongas)
- A transportable building providing accommodation for one person, often used on remote work sites or as tourist accommodation.
- Menzies Hotel ([Ph] 9024 2043; 22 Shenton St; s/d $48/65, donga $75) has old-style hotel rooms as well as - for that real goldfields experience - dongas (temporary miner′s abode, usually made from corrugated iron), and also serves all meals.2004, Susie Ashworth, Rebecca Turner, Simone Egger, Western Australia, Lonely Planet, page 152
- He not only expects his fence to be perfect, he also expects his dongas to be the best workman′s huts in Australia, and that is what they are.2004, James Woodford, The Dog Fence, page 225
Also used as
donga is also the alternative spelling of donger.
Examples of donga in a sentence
- Thousands of miserable cattle and goats roamed everywhere making tracks that would someday form cracks which successive rains would open into gullies and dongas.1948, Henry Vollam Morton, In Search of South Africa, Methuen, page 168:
- Count yourself lucky not to be a prisoner in the car at this moment, speeding away, or at the bottom of a donga with a bullet in your head.1999, JM Coetzee, Disgrace, Vintage, published 2000, page 98:
Synonyms of donga
Forms of donga
| plural | dongas |
|---|
Origin of donga
Borrowed from Afrikaans donga, borrowed from Zulu ū́dongá, from Proto-Bantu *mʊ̀dòngà.
Unknown; probably connected in some way with Etymology 1.
Phrases with donga
Questions about donga
- What does donga mean?
- Donga means a usually dry, eroded watercourse running only in times of heavy rain.
- How do you use donga in a sentence?
- Thousands of miserable cattle and goats roamed everywhere making tracks that would someday form cracks which successive rains would open into gullies and dongas.
- What part of speech is donga?
- Donga is a noun.
- How do you pronounce donga?
- Donga is pronounced /ˈdɔŋɡə/ (US).
- What is the plural of donga?
- The plural of donga is dongas.
Words near donga in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: donga (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: EN-AU ck1 donga.ogg.
Cite this entry: “donga.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/donga. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.