Word.ws English Dictionary

motlopi

Syllables: mo·tlo·pi/məʊˈtləʊpi/US/moʊˈtloʊpi/

motlopi noun: the shepherd tree or shepherd's tree (Boscia albitrunca), an evergreen tree native to southern and tropical Africa which is one of the most important forage trees of the Kalahari.

Noun

motlopi (plural motlopi or motlopis)

  1. The shepherd tree or shepherd's tree (Boscia albitrunca), an evergreen tree native to southern and tropical Africa which is one of the most important forage trees of the Kalahari.
    • The first mile or two was a grassy open plain of grey sandy soil consolidated by the grass roots and the late rains. Then came groves of mimosas, oomahaama, and motlopies, growing as usual from ant-hills, and these again alternated with patches of low bush of brittle wood, with smooth spear-shaped...1862 January 9, Thomas Baines, chapter XI, in Explorations in South-west Africa. […], London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, & Green, published 1864, →OCLC, pages 302–303
    • In times of scarcity the women and children spend hours every day in digging up, drying in the sun, and grinding into coarse flour the root of the motlopi-tree, of which they make porridge. This root is also extensively used by the frontier colonists as coffee.1871, John Mackenzie, “Kuruman, formerly Lattakoo, Mission”, in Ten Years North of the Orange River: A Story of Everyday Life and Work among the South African Tribes from 1859 to 1869, Edinburgh...
    Synonyms:
    matoppie, witgat

Examples of motlopi in a sentence

  • The most common indigenous trees include the mophane, the camel-thorn, the motlopi (sheperd's^([sic – meaning shepherd's]) tree) and the baobab.1984, Mishingo Mpaphadzi, editor, Botswana ’84: An Official Handbook, Gaborone, Botswana: Publicity Unit, Department of Information and...
  • Carefully he approached the tall motlopi tree.2002, Nelson Mandela, edited by Marguerite Gordon, Nelson Mandela’s Favorite African Folktales, New York, N.Y.: Norton, →ISBN, page 199:
  • A newer product in the beverage category is motlopi coffee, made from motlopi root.2011, Segametsi Ditshebo Maruapula, Karen Chapman-Novakofski, “Botswana”, in Sari Edelstein, editor, Food, Cuisine, and Cultural Competency...

Synonyms of motlopi

Forms of motlopi

pluralmotlopi
pluralmotlopis

Origin of motlopi

Borrowed from Tswana motlopi. The word is cognate with Afrikaans matoppie, Northern Sotho mohlopi, Sotho mohlopi, Venda muṱhobi.

Questions about motlopi

What does motlopi mean?
Motlopi means the shepherd tree or shepherd's tree (Boscia albitrunca), an evergreen tree native to southern and tropical Africa which is one of the most important forage trees of the Kalahari.
How do you use motlopi in a sentence?
The most common indigenous trees include the mophane, the camel-thorn, the motlopi (sheperd's^([sic – meaning shepherd's]) tree) and the baobab.
What part of speech is motlopi?
Motlopi is a noun.
How do you pronounce motlopi?
Motlopi is pronounced /məʊˈtləʊpi/ (UK).
What is the plural of motlopi?
The plural of motlopi is motlopi.

Words near motlopi in the dictionary

  1. motleying
  2. motleyness
  3. motleys
  4. motlier
  5. motliest
  6. motlopi
  7. motlopis
  8. motmot
  9. motmots
  10. moto
  11. moto perpetuo

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: motlopi (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-motlopi.wav.

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