Hausa
Americannoun
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Hausas,
plural
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Hausa
plural
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a member of an Indigenous people of northern Nigeria and southern Niger whose culture has been strongly influenced by Islam.
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the language of the Hausa people, belonging to the Chadic branch of the Afroasiatic family, widely used in Africa as a language of commerce.
noun
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a member of a Negroid people of W Africa, living chiefly in N Nigeria
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the language of this people: the chief member of the Chadic subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic family of languages. It is widely used as a trading language throughout W Africa and the S Sahara
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected 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.
See Examples For:
Arewaflix will be a service "not only for Hausa films, but also for films in other languages from northern Nigeria", including Nupe and Kanuri, Amart said.
From Barron's ● Jan. 9, 2026
Most Nigerian films on major streamers like Netflix and Amazon Prime are from the country's richer south, where Hausa is a minority language.
From Barron's ● Jan. 9, 2026
Local residents dubbed it Boko Haram - a name which in the Hausa language loosely translates as "Western education is forbidden" because of their opposition to Western-style schools.
From BBC ● Nov. 27, 2025
Like most of those who live under the bridge, he speaks Hausa, the most widely spoken language in the north of Nigeria.
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2024
A voice, speaking English with an elegant Hausa accent, announced that the passengers from the London flight should proceed to board the flight for Lagos.
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Goodluck Jonathan – who served from 2010 to 2015 – had a relatively balanced team of two ethnic Fulanis, two Hausas, one Atyap, one Igbo, one Yoruba and one Calabar.
From BBC ● May 26, 2025
"The Hausas have long struggled with alienation… and they tired of being called foreigners," says researcher Mohamed Ahmed, an expert on communities in Sudan with West African ties.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2022
But the Chadian government refused to allow them passage, which led to a community of Hausas eventually settling in Darfur and other parts of Sudan.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2022
The Hausas in the north, who furnish the backbone of Britain's tough West African Rifles, are Moslems.
From Time Magazine Archive
On the route from Duala to Lake Chad is the large commercial town of Ngaundere, inhabited chiefly by Hausas and occupied by the Germans in 1901.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 1 "Calhoun" to "Camoens" 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.
