impi
/ˈɪmpi/
impi noun: a group of Zulu (or other Bantu) warriors; a detachment of armed men.
Noun
impi (plural impis)
- A group of Zulu (or other Bantu) warriors; a detachment of armed men.
- And in the end he, as well as three of his four children, shared Retief's fate in the massacre of Trekkers by the Zulu impis of Dingane.1978, André Brink, Rumours of Rain, Vintage, published 2000, page 212
- But as grizzled as Chief Joyi often seemed, the decades fell off him when he spoke of the impis, or warriors, in the army of King Ngangelizwe.1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 26
Forms of impi
| plural | impis |
|---|
Origin of impi
Borrowed from Zulu impi.
Questions about impi
- What does impi mean?
- Impi means a group of Zulu (or other Bantu) warriors; a detachment of armed men.
- What part of speech is impi?
- Impi is a noun.
- How do you pronounce impi?
- Impi is pronounced /ˈɪmpi/.
- What is the plural of impi?
- The plural of impi is impis.
Words near impi in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: impi (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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Cite this entry: “impi.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/impi. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.