Kikuyu
Americannoun
plural
Kikuyus,plural
Kikuyu-
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
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.
"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
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
A middle-aged man staggers into the bar and dances and sings along to a song in the Kikuyu language before slumping on one of the benches to join his friends.
From BBC • Mar. 18, 2023
On Kikuyu Road in Nairobi, Mary Wangari, 35, said that she stopped deep-frying her potatoes for a minute when she heard the ruling.
From Washington Post • Sep. 5, 2022
The elite in numbers and education were the Kikuyu.
From "Facing the Lion" by Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton and Herman Viola
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.
