moloi

UK/məˈlɔɪ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

General South African/mɔˈlɔɪ/

moloi noun: a magician, witch, wizard, or other magic-user, especially in traditional tribal society.

Noun

moloi (plural molois or baloi)

(Southern-Africa) A magician, witch, wizard, or other magic-user, especially in traditional tribal society.
- At dead of night the baloi issue forth from their homes.1846, Missionary Register, page 35
- He dared not use violent means, and the only course that suggested itself was to call in the aid of the molois; but neither did the operation of magic prove effectual, nor did he succeed in getting some poison, […]1881, Emil Holub, Seven Years in South Africa, page 386

Sometimes the moloi conceals a bundle of rags containing "doctored" roots and other substances in the eaves of his victim's hut […]1934, Edward Evans-Pritchard, Essays presented to CG Seligman, page 295:
And time and again they have told me one thing – this woman is not a moloi.1994, Bret Galloway, Balck Papyrus, Unlimited Publishing, published 2003, page 66:

plural	molois
plural	baloi

Borrowed from Tswana moloi, from loa (“to enchant”).

What does moloi mean?: Moloi means a magician, witch, wizard, or other magic-user, especially in traditional tribal society.
How do you use moloi in a sentence?: Sometimes the moloi conceals a bundle of rags containing "doctored" roots and other substances in the eaves of his victim's hut […]
What part of speech is moloi?: Moloi is a noun.
How do you pronounce moloi?: Moloi is pronounced /məˈlɔɪ/ (UK).
What is the plural of moloi?: The plural of moloi is molois.

Adapted from Wiktionary: moloi (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

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