Word.ws English Dictionary

Ugandan affairs

Syllables: Ugand·an af·fairs/juːˌɡændən əˈfɛəz/US/(j)uˌɡɑndən əˈfɛɚz/

Ugandan affairs noun: often in the form to discuss Ugandan affairs: sexual intercourse, usually an extramarital affair.

Noun

Ugandan affairs pl (plural only)

  1. (UK, euphemistic, humorous, plural, plural-only) Often in the form to discuss Ugandan affairs: sexual intercourse, usually an extramarital affair.
    • Everyone known about them now; Rosemary has even been mentioned in Private Eye as "discussing Ugandan affairs with a gorgeous young American don."1984, Alison Lurie, chapter 5, in Foreign Affairs, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, published November 1985, →ISBN, page 171
    • 'You sure they're not … er … discussing Ugandan affairs?' Rhona asked, citing the old euphemism for illicit sex.1998, Cathy Kelly, chapter 13, in She’s the One, London: Headline Publishing Group, published 2011, →ISBN

Synonyms of Ugandan affairs

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Origin of Ugandan affairs

Probably a variant of Ugandan discussions (“(UK, euphemistic, informal) sexual intercourse”), from discuss Uganda (“(UK, euphemistic, informal) to have sex”), said to have been coined by the English journalist and poet James Fenton (born 1949), based on a 1973 incident at a party at which the Irish journalist Mary Kenny (born 1944) explained why she was in the arms of a former Ugandan cabinet minister by saying they were “upstairs discussing Uganda”. The incident was reported by the British satirical and current affairs magazine Private Eye on 9 March 1973, which then popularized the expression by using it to refer to other sexual affairs.

Words that rhyme with Ugandan affairs

26 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about Ugandan affairs

What does Ugandan affairs mean?
Ugandan affairs means often in the form to discuss Ugandan affairs: sexual intercourse, usually an extramarital affair.
What part of speech is Ugandan affairs?
Ugandan affairs is a noun.
How do you pronounce Ugandan affairs?
Ugandan affairs is pronounced /juːˌɡændən əˈfɛəz/ (UK).

Words near Ugandan affairs in the dictionary

  1. ugali
  2. ugals
  3. Uganda
  4. Uganda grass
  5. Ugandan
  6. Ugandan affairs
  7. Ugandan discussions
  8. Ugandan English
  9. Ugandan giraffe
  10. Ugandan giraffes
  11. Ugandanness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Ugandan affairs (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Ugandan affairs.wav.

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