Word.ws English Dictionary

matatu

Syllables: ma·ta·tu/məˈtætuː/US/məˈtɑˌtu/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

matatu noun: a minivan used as a shared taxi, especially one operating without a licence.

matatu: a minivan used as a shared taxi, especially one operating without a licence
Image: Loise W. Macharia, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

matatu (plural matatus or matatu)

  1. (Kenya, Uganda) A minivan used as a shared taxi, especially one operating without a licence.
    • A matatu is also more profitable when driven by its owner than by an employed driver, or if the employee-driver pays in all the earnings and the owner meets the operating costs, rather than when the owner demands a fixed sum of money daily, with the operator keeping the surplus.1982, United Nations Centre for Human Settlements Habitat News
    • For now, matatus made lanes along both sides of tarmac main roads and went over, around or through potholes depending on their speed.2010, Philo Ikonya, Leading the Night, page 102
    Synonyms:
    daladala, mathree

Examples of matatu in a sentence

  • Memories of their sense of trepidation, or even the anger, aboard a matatu could still be visceral.2017, Kenda Mutongi, Matatu: A History of Popular Transportation in Nairobi, page 98:
  • The roads were jammed with matatu minibuses sporting cartoonish liveries, and trucks billowing black smoke into the dazzling African light.2024 January 13, David Pilling, “Revenge of the moderators”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN...

Synonyms of matatu

Forms of matatu

pluralmatatus
pluralmatatu

Origin of matatu

Borrowed from Swahili matatu, from ma- + -tatu (“three”).

Words formed from matatu

  • matatu culture

Questions about matatu

What does matatu mean?
Matatu means a minivan used as a shared taxi, especially one operating without a licence.
How do you use matatu in a sentence?
Memories of their sense of trepidation, or even the anger, aboard a matatu could still be visceral.
What part of speech is matatu?
Matatu is a noun.
How do you pronounce matatu?
Matatu is pronounced /məˈtætuː/ (UK).
What is the plural of matatu?
The plural of matatu is matatus.

Words near matatu in the dictionary

  1. matas
  2. matasano
  3. matatabi
  4. Matatalaib
  5. Matathia
  6. matatu
  7. matatus
  8. Mataura
  9. Matawan
  10. matawari
  11. Matayoshi

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: matatu (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:

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

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