Kikuyu
Americannoun
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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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In fact, the Kikuyu are often referred to as the House of Mũmbi, after their mythological founding mother.
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026
Wa Esther, the veteran musician, agrees that people from other communities who criticise the use of female names by Kikuyu men do not understand "our way of life".
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026
"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
He knew perhaps more than any white man about the Kikuyu, too, since his missionary father had allowed him to grow up almost as part of the tribe.
From "My Life with the Chimpanzees" by Jane Goodall
This week the phrase "We are all Kikuyus," trended on social media as young people rejected attempts to reintroduce the ethnic divisions that have long plagued Kenyan politics.
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2025
Ruto owed his success in part to his support among the Kikuyus, Kenya’s largest tribe, initial results indicated.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 15, 2022
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
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
Next morning, when we arose, we found one of the wagon Kikuyus awaiting us.
From African Camp Fires by White, Stewart Edward
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.
