Akan
Americannoun
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a language of the Kwa branch of Niger-Congo spoken in much of Ghana and parts of the Ivory Coast.
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a member of any of various Akan-speaking peoples, including the Ashanti and Fanti.
noun
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a member of a people of Ghana and the E Côte d'Ivoire
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the language of this people, having two chief dialects, Fanti and Twi, and belonging to the Kwa branch of the Niger-Congo family
Other Word Forms
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The description says it is a metaphorical symbol used by the Akan people of Ghana to express “the importance of reaching back to knowledge gained in the past and bringing it into the present.”
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 6, 2026
A video shared by local media showed MPs in the dimly lit chamber chanting: "Dumsor, dumsor", which means power outage in the local Akan language.
From BBC • Mar. 1, 2024
“The world has discovered that there’s a new way to approach music … that hits you, gives you a new emotion, gives you new feelings, gives you a new experience,” says Akan of Afrobeats Intelligence.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 2, 2024
At lake Akan, the cumulative water temperature was 1250°C-days in 1988, but in the past decade it has risen to about 1610°C-days.
From Science Daily • Oct. 16, 2023
Akim is considered the finest and purest of all the Akan dialects.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 2 "Gloss" to "Gordon, Charles George" by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
