shweshwe
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
General South African/ʃwɛʃwɛ/
shweshwe noun: a patterned South African fabric used mainly for women's clothing.
Noun
shweshwe (uncountable)
- A patterned South African fabric used mainly for women's clothing.
- He employs 40 Sotho women to cut and make traditional Shweshwe dresses — from fabric manufactured In England and in Bisho, near East London.1989, Southern Africa Today
- But Ms. Katsaras always keeps the series’s central character, the private investigator Precious Ramotswe (Jill Scott, above), the focus of attention with colorful dresses and head scarves made of shweshwe, the traditional South African fabric known for its pulsating motifs.2009 June 7, Margy Rochlin, “Jo Katsaras: ‘No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency’”, in New York Times
Forms of shweshwe
| alternative form | seshweshwe |
|---|
Origin of shweshwe
From the Sotho name Moshoeshoe, also spelled Mshweshwe.
Questions about shweshwe
- What does shweshwe mean?
- Shweshwe means a patterned South African fabric used mainly for women's clothing.
- What part of speech is shweshwe?
- Shweshwe is a noun.
- How do you pronounce shweshwe?
- Shweshwe is pronounced /ʃwɛʃwɛ/ (General South African).
Words near shweshwe in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: shweshwe (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: “shweshwe.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shweshwe. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.