Bantu
Americannoun
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a member of any of several peoples forming a linguistically and in some respects culturally interrelated family in central and southern Africa.
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a grouping of more than 500 languages of central and southern Africa, as Kikuyu, Swahili, Tswana, and Zulu, all related within a subbranch of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Kordofanian family.
adjective
noun
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a group of languages of Africa, including most of the principal languages spoken from the equator to the Cape of Good Hope, but excluding the Khoisan family: now generally regarded as part of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo family
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taboo a Black speaker of a Bantu language
adjective
Usage
Use of the term Bantu is only acceptable outside South Africa and when talking about this group of languages and their speakers. To refer to African people or peoples, the terms Black and African are acceptable within South Africa
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of Bantu
C19: from Bantu Ba-ntu people
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.
See Examples For:
The artist’s eponymous 2025 sculpture, crowned with an array of Bantu knots, ties the entire show together, joining materiality, traditional cultural identity, and the outward-looking nature of the exhibition in a single work.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
These differences reflect the influence of indigenous languages - Nigeria has more than 500 languages which shape its cadence and intonation, while Kenya's Bantu, Nilotic and Cushitic mix give rise to its own accents.
From BBC ● Apr. 24, 2026
The New York Times reported that the thief wrote their message in Luganda, a Bantu language of Uganda.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2024
It evolved from a mix of Yoruba, Fon and Bantu beliefs brought to what is now Brazil by enslaved West African people during the colonial expansion of the Portuguese empire, scholars said.
From New York Times ● May 18, 2024
The first Bantu pioneers probably were few in number, selected wet-forest areas suitable for their yam agriculture, and leapfrogged over drier areas, which they left to Khoisan herders and hunter-gatherers.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
The migrating Bantus, for example, spread their languages and ironworking technology throughout this region.
From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023
Yet, in recent years, the Somali Bantus have made strides.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 4, 2022
But for the Bantus, there is still a sense of accomplishment — and of possibilities.
From New York Times ● Aug. 10, 2014
Apart from a possible hypothesis of a massive colonization by the Bantus, the other logical explanation of such data would be the erosion of fossil soils horizons, evidence of the leaching during past climates.
From Science Magazine ● Aug. 30, 2012
They now advanced more cautiously as they saw the Bantus in front gesturing to them and in another moment sighted two giraffes standing in an open glade ahead.
From The Blind Lion of the Congo by Whitney, Elliott
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.
