likembe
likembe noun: a musical instrument found in sub-Saharan Africa; a kind of lamellophone.
Noun
likembe (plural likembes)
- A musical instrument found in sub-Saharan Africa; a kind of lamellophone.
- One of the lesser pygmies had a small musical instrument in his lap, a hollowed-out box affair with small strips of metal set across a bar on top which, if I remember right, is called a "Likembe."1946, James Riddell, In the forests of the night, page 204
- This instrument became interregionally known as the likembe, and it spread like wildfire among porters and employees in the Belgian colonial service throughout the French and the Belgian Congo, thus paralleling the spread of the trade […]1999, Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje, Turn Up the Volume!: A Celebration of African Music, page 44
Forms of likembe
| plural | likembes |
|---|
Origin of likembe
Borrowed from Lingala likembé, from li- + kembé.
Questions about likembe
- What does likembe mean?
- Likembe means a musical instrument found in sub-Saharan Africa; a kind of lamellophone.
- What part of speech is likembe?
- Likembe is a noun.
- What is the plural of likembe?
- The plural of likembe is likembes.
Words near likembe in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: likembe (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:
Cite this entry: “likembe.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/likembe. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.