Swahili
/swəˈhiːli/US/swɑˈhili/
Swahili proper noun: an agglutinative language of the Bantu branch widely spoken in East Africa. Born in its modern form from the hybridization of the Arabic and Bantu cultures, it was the language of the traders in East Africa, and spread along the routes of trade.
Proper noun
Swahili
- An agglutinative language of the Bantu branch widely spoken in East Africa. Born in its modern form from the hybridization of the Arabic and Bantu cultures, it was the language of the traders in East Africa, and spread along the routes of trade.
- On Tuesday night at the Club Serene in Brooklyn, Mayor Koch proclaimed Kwanzaa Week in New York. Then he told the crowd of about 400 that he had practiced his Swahili in order to pronounce correctly such exotic-sounding words as kujichagulia (self-determination), ujamaa (cooperative economics) and...1983 December 30, Ron Alexander, “The Evening Hours”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 03 Jan 2022, page B7
- Similarly, Swahili evolved as the trading language in East Africa and is described as having an Arab vocabulary upon an African grammar.2021 April 25, John Malathronas, “Which languages are easiest – and most difficult – for native English speakers to learn?”, in CNN, archived from the original on 22 Mar 2022
- Synonyms:
- Kiswahili
Noun
Swahili (plural Swahilis or Swahili)
- A member of various ethnic groups — mainly Bantu, Afro-Arab and Comorian — inhabiting the Swahili coast.
- The Swahilis are a unique and important community that began to form before the arrival of Islam, as a result of intermarriage between Arab traders who came to the coast and women from local ethnic groups.2000, Arye Oded, Islam and Politics in Kenya, page 12
- The final sources for the early history of the Swahili are the oral traditions related by them about their own past.2017, Derek Nurse, Thomas Spear, The Swahili, page 29
- Synonyms:
- Waswahili
Swahili meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Assamese
Swahili in Hindi
- language
- स्वाहिली svāhilī
Swahili in Marathi
- language
- स्वाहिली svāhilī
Swahili in Urdu
- language
- سَواحِلی savāhilī
Swahili in Assamese
- language
- চোৱাহিলি süahili
More languagesFewer languages
- Swahili in Nepali
- स्वाहिली svāhilī
- Swahili in Arabic
- السَّوَاحِلِيَّة as-sawāḥiliyya
- Swahili in Persian
- سواحلی savâheli
- Swahili in Vietnamese
- tiếng Swahili
Synonyms of Swahili
Forms of Swahili
| plural | Swahilis |
|---|---|
| plural | Swahili |
Origin of Swahili
Borrowed from Swahili Mswahili / Kiswahili, from Arabic سَوَاحِلِيّ (sawāḥiliyy, “(people) of the coasts”), from سَوَاحِل (sawāḥil, “coasts”), broken plural of سَاحِل (sāḥil, “coast”).
Words formed from Swahili
Words that rhyme with Swahili
Questions about Swahili
- What does Swahili mean?
- Swahili means an agglutinative language of the Bantu branch widely spoken in East Africa. Born in its modern form from the hybridization of the Arabic and Bantu cultures, it was the language of the traders in East Africa, and spread along the routes of trade.
- What is Swahili in Hindi?
- Swahili in Hindi is स्वाहिली (svāhilī). See Swahili meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is Swahili?
- Swahili can be a proper noun or a noun.
- How do you pronounce Swahili?
- Swahili is pronounced /swəˈhiːli/ (UK).
Words near Swahili in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Swahili (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-Swahili.wav.
Cite this entry: “Swahili.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/swahili. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.