kraal

/kɹɑːl/

kraal noun: in Central and Southern Africa, a small rural community.

Noun

kraal (plural kraals)

In Central and Southern Africa, a small rural community.
- Onanis is the permanent residence of a kraal of very poor Hill-Damaras, who subsist chiefly upon the few wild roots which their sterile neighborhood produces.1861, Charles John Andersson, “chapter VII”, in Lake Ngami, page 89
- ‘The paraffin box covered with newsprint, and the primus, and the bucket standing on the floor, and a photo of our kraal’s chief on the wall.’1979, André Brink, A Dry White Season, Vintage, published 1998, page 88
In Central and Southern Africa, a rural village of huts surrounded by a stockade.
- A kraal was a homestead and usually included a simple fenced-in enclosure for animals, fields for growing crops, and one or more thatched huts.1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, Abacus, published 2010, page 6
An enclosure for livestock.
- The animal, which is now six years old, was born naturally from the mating of a female goat with a male sheep sharing the same kraal.2000 July 3, Jonathan Amos, “'Funny creature' toast of Botswana”, in BBC News Online
Synonyms:

corral, pen

kraal (third-person singular simple present kraals, present participle kraaling, simple past and past participle kraaled)

(transitive) To enclose (livestock) within a kraal or stockade.
- […] he knew that one of these beasts was in the habit of harassing the goat-kids, which, for better security, he had kraaled against the wall of the house.1861, Charles John Andersson, Lake Ngami, chapter XXVIII, page 343
Synonyms:

corral

കുടിൽ, കന്നുകാലിത്തൊഴുത്ത്, ആട്ടിൻതൊഴുത്ത്

Noun
plural	kraals
Verb
third-person singular present	kraals
present participle	kraaling
past participle	kraaled
past	kraaled

From colonial Dutch kraal, from Portuguese curral. Doublet of corral.

15 more rhymesFewer rhymes

What does kraal mean?: Kraal means in Central and Southern Africa, a small rural community.
What is kraal in Malayalam?: Kraal in Malayalam is കുടിൽ, കന്നുകാലിത്തൊഴുത്ത്, ആട്ടിൻതൊഴുത്ത്. See Kraal meaning in Malayalam.
What part of speech is kraal?: Kraal can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce kraal?: Kraal is pronounced /kɹɑːl/ (UK).
What is the plural of kraal?: The plural of kraal is kraals.

Adapted from Wiktionary: kraal (page history and authors); kraal (Malayalam Wiktionary) (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: 2026-09-02

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

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