Masai

[ muh-sahy ]

noun,plural Ma·sais, (especially collectively) Ma·sai.
  1. a member of an African people inhabiting the highlands of Kenya and Tanzania and having a largely pastoral economy and a society based on the patrilineal clan.

  2. the Nilotic language of the Masai.

  • Also Maa·sai [mah-sahy, mah-sahy] /mɑˈsaɪ, ˈmɑ saɪ/ .

Words Nearby Masai

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use Masai in a sentence

  • After a day's rest we marched to Tok-i-Tok, the frontier of Masai land.

  • The Elmoran ran alongside, with her Masai-warrior figurehead and the black cylinder on her catapult aft.

    Uller Uprising | Henry Beam Piper, John D. Clark and John F. Carr

British Dictionary definitions for Masai

Masai

/ (ˈmɑːsaɪ, mɑːˈsaɪ, ˈmæsaɪ) /


noun
  1. plural -sais or -sai a member of a Nilotic people, formerly noted as warriors, living chiefly in Kenya and Tanzania

  2. the language of this people, belonging to the Nilotic group of the Nilo-Saharan family

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012