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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Wairimũ Mũkũrũ, a young Kikuyu cultural expert with a large social media following, says the rise of female surnames is largely down to the fact that single-mother families have become much more common.
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026
Academic George Gathigi explains that while Kikuyu men may have traditionally identified themselves through their mothers, that was always informal, with formal adoption of female names being a new phenomenon.
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
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
Although Mr Gachagua has been dogged by corruption allegations, he is a strong mobiliser and has the ear of struggling Kikuyus.
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2022
Both men are also Kikuyus, Kenya’s biggest ethnic group but still a minority.
From Reuters ● Sep. 3, 2017
He Was a Very Important Sultan Saying Good-bye to Colonel Roosevelt A Visiting Delegation of Kikuyus No words can convey to the imagination the density of that first strip of bush.
From In Africa Hunting Adventures in the Big Game Country by John T. McCutcheon
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
