Akan
Americannoun
plural
Akans,plural
Akan-
a language of the Kwa branch of Niger-Congo spoken in much of Ghana and parts of the Ivory Coast.
-
a member of any of various Akan-speaking peoples, including the Ashanti and Fanti.
noun
-
a member of a people of Ghana and the E Côte d'Ivoire
-
the language of this people, having two chief dialects, Fanti and Twi, and belonging to the Kwa branch of the Niger-Congo family
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
In recent decades, their global population has been decreasing and now the only place where balls of 20 cm and larger exist is Lake Akan in Hokkaido, the northern island of Japan.
From Science Daily • Oct. 16, 2023
“Since you were born on a Tuesday, I’m sure you would not mind the Ghanaian name Abena, the Akan name for all Tuesday born females, to your name,” he said.
From Seattle Times • Apr. 2, 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.
