Word.ws English Dictionary

imbongi

Syllables: im·bon·gi/ɪmˈbɒŋɡi/US/ɪmˈbɔŋɡi/

imbongi noun: a praise singer, a traditional bard in Zulu culture.

imbongi: a praise singer, a traditional bard in Zulu culture
Image: Anagoria, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

imbongi (plural izimbongi or iimbongi or imbongis)

  1. (South Africa) A praise singer, a traditional bard in Zulu culture.
    • Let us consider the contemporary oral poetry of the Xhosa Bantu[…], and its highest form, the praise-poetry of male tradents, who were attached until recently to tribal chiefs. The tradents are imbongi ‘praise poets’ and the genre of their work is the izibongo ‘praise poem.’ “The lines of the...1980, M. O'Connor, “Hebrew Verse Structure”, in Hebrew Verse Structure, Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, published 1997, →ISBN, section 1.7.2 (Constriction in Other Languages), page 157
    • […] Mbutuma and Manisi are both "traditional" iimbongi, but Manisi's oral poetry is more historical than Mbutuma's – so that the bearer of a tradition is an individual creative artist even though he shares attributes with other participants in the tradition. […] Few Xhosa iimbongi today are...1983, Jeff Opland, “Change in the Tradition”, in Xhosa Oral Poetry: Aspects of a Black South African Tradition (Cambridge Studies in Oral and Literate Culture; 7), Cambridge; New York, N.Y....

Examples of imbongi in a sentence

  • While the government may have its media imbongis (praise singers), much of the problem lies with inexperienced political reports and poor newsroom leadership.2005, Angela Quintal, “Political Reporting”, in Adrian Hadland, editor, Essays on South African Journalism, Cape Town: HSRC Press...
  • The imbongi is in many ways a unique figure in traditional society; his role is part historian, part counselor, part social and political critic.2018, Timothy Reagan, “‘A Wise Child is Talked to in Proverbs’: Indigenous Educational Thought and Practice in Africa”, in Non-Western...

Forms of imbongi

pluralizimbongi
pluraliimbongi
pluralimbongis

Origin of imbongi

Borrowed from Zulu imbongi and Xhosa imbongi. The plural izimbongi is derived from Zulu, while iimbongi is from Xhosa.

Questions about imbongi

What does imbongi mean?
Imbongi means a praise singer, a traditional bard in Zulu culture.
How do you use imbongi in a sentence?
While the government may have its media imbongis (praise singers), much of the problem lies with inexperienced political reports and poor newsroom leadership.
What part of speech is imbongi?
Imbongi is a noun.
How do you pronounce imbongi?
Imbongi is pronounced /ɪmˈbɒŋɡi/ (UK).
What is the plural of imbongi?
The plural of imbongi is izimbongi.

Words near imbongi in the dictionary

  1. imboldened
  2. imboldening
  3. imboldens
  4. Imbolg
  5. imbondo
  6. imbongi
  7. imbongis
  8. imbonities
  9. imbonity
  10. imborder
  11. imbordered

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: imbongi (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.

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

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