kraal

American  

[krahl] / krɑl /

Or craal

noun

1. an enclosure for cattle and other domestic animals in southern Africa.

2. a village of the Native peoples of South Africa, usually surrounded by a stockade or the like and often having a central space for livestock.

3. such a village as a social unit.

4. an enclosure where wild animals are exhibited, as in a zoo.

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verb (used with object)

1. to shut up in an enclosure or pen, as cattle.

kraal British  

/ krɑːl /

noun

1. a hut village in southern Africa, esp one surrounded by a stockade

2. an enclosure for livestock

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adjective

1. denoting or relating to the tribal aspects of the Black African way of life

verb

1. (tr) to enclose (livestock) in a kraal

Etymology

Origin of kraal

First recorded in 1725–35; from Afrikaans, from Portuguese curral “pen”; corral

Example Sentences

The pockmarked earth on Johannesburg's eastern fringe, until last week a humble cattle kraal ringed with barbed wire, now stands as the unlikely centre of South Africa's latest gold fever.

From Barron's • Feb. 16, 2026

To find out, rangeland ecologist Allan Sebata and colleagues at the National University of Science & Technology in Zimbabwe sought ancient kraal locations on the country’s Shangani Holistic Ranch, seeking hints in the plant cover.

From Science Magazine • Dec. 12, 2023

A strong smell hangs in the air - a swam of flies buzzes off dead goats in a kraal, or compound, fenced with papyrus reeds.

From BBC • Dec. 2, 2016

Galeyo Kobamelo, 37, said he had lost all 30 goats in the kraal just outside his family compound to lions and hyenas since the hunting ban.

From New York Times • Sep. 12, 2015

“This is a place where someday soon, all of our people will have to come to live,” my father said to me one afternoon as we ambled about the tribal chief’s kraal.

From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane