sengi

Syllables: sen·gi/ˈsɛŋɡi/US/ˈsɛŋɡi/

sengi noun: any of several small, insectivorous long-nosed mammals, of the family Macroscelididae within the Macroscelidea order, native to Africa.

Image: Joey Makalintal from Pennsylvania, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

sengi (plural sengis)

Any of several small, insectivorous long-nosed mammals, of the family Macroscelididae within the Macroscelidea order, native to Africa.
- Four-toed elephant shrew or sengi Petrodromus tetradactylus[1997, Jonathan Kingdon, “Elephant Shrews, or Sengis”, in The Kingdon Field Guide to African Mammals, San Diego, Calif.; London: AP Natural World, Academic Press, →ISBN, page 149
- The order formerly known as Insectivora included solenodons; shrews; moles and desmans; hedgehogs and moonrats or gymnures; golden moles, tenrecs, and otter shrews; and sengis or elephant shrews.2007, Marian Armstrong, Wildlife and Plants, volume 9 (Horseshoe Crab – Ladybug), New York, N.Y.: Marshall Cavendish, →ISBN, page 540
Synonyms:

elephant shrew, jumping shrew, macroscelidid

Noun (2)

sengi (plural sengis or sengi)

(historical) A former (1967–1993) monetary unit of Zaire, one hundredth of a likuta, and one ten-thousandth of a zaire; it was issued only in ten sengi coins.

sengi meaning in Indonesian, Thai and Vietnamese

sengi in Indonesian

Any member of the order Macroscelidea: celurut gajah, celurut lompat

sengi in Thai

Any member of the order Macroscelidea: หนูผีช้าง nǔu-pǐi cháang

sengi in Vietnamese

Any member of the order Macroscelidea: chuột chù voi

Examples of sengi in a sentence

Sengis feed on insects and other animal and plant material. […] Young sengis are highly precocial at birth—they will forage 1 day after birth[…].2007, George A[lan] Feldhamer, Lee C[harles] Drickamer, Stephen H[ulbert] Vessey, Joseph F[rancis] Merritt, Carey Krajewski, “Afrosoricida...
Like small African antelopes, sengis spend their life exposed to the elements while relying on disruptive coloration to act as camouflage from the plethora of African predators.2010, Joseph F[rancis] Merritt, “Mating Systems and Reproductive Strategies”, in The Biology of Small Mammals, Baltimore, Md.: Johns...
The gray-faced sengi is good at hiding out.2013 December 20, Christy Ullrich Barcus, “World’s Biggest Elephant Shrew Tracked in Tanzania”, in National Geographic, Washington, D.C....

Synonyms of sengi

Forms of sengi

plural	sengis
plural	sengi
alternative form	senghi

Origin of sengi

Borrowed from Swahili sengi, probably from another Bantu language (compare Giryama sanje).

PIE word *pénkʷe Borrowed from Kongo sengi, senki, from French cinq (“five”) (in the sense of five sous). Doublet of cinque, fin (“five currency units”), finnuf, five, pimp (“five”), ponzu, and punch (“beverage”).

Phrases with sengi

golden-rumped sengi

Questions about sengi

What does sengi mean?: Sengi means any of several small, insectivorous long-nosed mammals, of the family Macroscelididae within the Macroscelidea order, native to Africa.
What is sengi in Indonesian?: Sengi in Indonesian is celurut gajah, celurut lompat. See Sengi meaning in Indonesian.
How do you use sengi in a sentence?: Sengis feed on insects and other animal and plant material. […] Young sengis are highly precocial at birth—they will forage 1 day after birth[…].
What part of speech is sengi?: Sengi is a noun.
How do you pronounce sengi?: Sengi is pronounced /ˈsɛŋɡi/ (UK).
What is the plural of sengi?: The plural of sengi is sengis.

Words near sengi in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: sengi (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-sengi.wav.

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