Matabele

[ mat-uh-bee-lee ]

noun,plural Mat·a·be·les, (especially collectively) Mat·a·be·le.

Origin of Matabele

1
First recorded in 1815–25

Words Nearby Matabele

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use Matabele in a sentence

  • As they advanced they saw evidences on every hand of the terrible Mantatees, and the still more terrible Matabele.

    Robert Moffat | David J. Deane
  • After much persuasion, permission was given him to preach the Gospel to the Matabele people, a privilege hitherto always denied.

    Robert Moffat | David J. Deane
  • At Sechele's town the two portions of this latter division were united, and thence they journeyed onwards towards the Matabele.

    Robert Moffat | David J. Deane
  • He has lived, he tells me, eighteen years in South Africa and fought for us against the Matabele.

    Servants of the Guns | Jeffery E. Jeffery
  • In the fort they showed with pride some half a dozen Matabele prisoners they had captured in a fight.

    The Matabele Campaign | R. S. S. Baden-Powell

British Dictionary definitions for Matabele

Matabele

/ (ˌmætəˈbiːlɪ, -ˈbɛlɪ) /


noun
  1. plural -les or -le a member of a formerly warlike people of southern Africa, now living in Zimbabwe: driven out of the Transvaal by the Boers in 1837: Now known as: Ndebele

  2. the language of this people, belonging to the Bantu group of the Niger-Congo family

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