Word.ws English Dictionary

izimbongi

Syllables: iz·im·bon·giUK/ˌɪzɪmˈbɒŋɡi/US/ˌɪzɪmˈbɔŋɡi/

izimbongi is the plural of imbongi.

Meaning of imbongi

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

Origin of izimbongi

Borrowed from Zulu izimbongi, from izim- (“class 10 noun prefix”) + imbongi.

Questions about izimbongi

What is izimbongi the plural of?
Izimbongi is the plural of imbongi.
How do you pronounce izimbongi?
Izimbongi is pronounced /ˌɪzɪmˈbɒŋɡi/ (UK).

Words near izimbongi in the dictionary

  1. izibongo
  2. izicoco
  3. Izidi
  4. Izidism
  5. izimbizo
  6. izimbongi
  7. izinduna
  8. izinyanga
  9. Izioum
  10. Izium
  11. izle

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: izimbongi (page history and authors); 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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