Kikuyu
Americannoun
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Kikuyus,
plural
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Kikuyu
plural
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a member of an Indigenous people of Kenya having an agricultural economy and notable as being the originators of the Mau Mau.
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the language of the Kikuyu, a Bantu language.
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Also called kikuyu grass. Usually kikuyu a grass, Pennisetum clandestinum, native to southern Africa, sometimes used in warm climates for lawns or as pasturage.
noun
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a member of a Negroid people of E Africa, living chiefly in Kenya on the high foothills around Mount Kenya
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the language of this people, belonging to the Bantu group of the Niger-Congo family
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.
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"Hold On to Me" from Cyprus traces the efforts of an 11-year-old tracking down her estranged father, while documentary "Kikuyu Land" from Kenya examines how powerful outside forces use local corruption to dispossess a people.
From Barron's ● Jan. 22, 2026
The Kenyan's work spanned six decades and two languages - first English, and then his mother tongue, Kikuyu.
From BBC ● Dec. 31, 2025
He dropped his English name, James, and resolved to write only in the language of the Kikuyu people, his mother tongue.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 23, 2025
So, angry about corruption and police excesses, she says she joined friends protesting in Kikuyu, a lush town on the outskirts of the capital.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2025
The elite in numbers and education were the Kikuyu.
From "Facing the Lion" by Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton and Herman Viola
Instead of delivering votes for his chosen successor, Mr. Kenyatta suffered a humiliating rebuke from voters in his heartland, the Mount Kenya region, where ethnic Kikuyus rejected his allies across the board.
From New York Times ● Aug. 15, 2022
He was referring to the fact that of Kenya's four presidents since independence, three have been Kikuyus.
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2022
Both selected running mates are Kikuyus, Kenya’s most populous ethnic group, as Odinga and Ruto - who hail from other communities - seek to attract Kikuyu votes.
From Reuters ● May 16, 2022
But tribalism remained a strong element in Kenyan politics, and he surrounded himself with a close-knit cadre of his fellow Kikuyus, whose traditional homeland was near Mount Kenya.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 22, 2022
If it were daytime, the cattle were allowed to graze under supervision of one of the Kikuyus.
From African Camp Fires by Stewart Edward White
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.
