Ndebele
Americannoun
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Also called Matabele. a member of a Nguni people of the Transvaal and Zimbabwe.
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the Bantu language of these people.
noun
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a member of a Negroid people of Zimbabwe See also Matabele
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the language of this people, belonging to the Bantu grouping 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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The ancient Ndebele interacted with the nomadic San, whose descendants still live in some parts of Zimbabwe and in South Africa.
From Science Magazine ● Nov. 27, 2024
Written and sung in Navajo by Alex Rose Holiday, it features the Anderson trio playing with fierce intensity and Nelisiwe Mtsweni, an Ndebele singer, contributing piercing vocals.
From New York Times ● Feb. 24, 2023
Chris speaks English but neither of Zimbabwe's two main local languages, Shona or Ndebele.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2021
Mahlangu, who always appears in public in traditional Ndebele clothes and jewellery, said that she intended to carry on working and travelling despite her age.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 22, 2020
At the time, black South Africans outnumbered white South Africans nearly five to one, yet we were divided into different tribes with different languages: Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana, Sotho, Venda, Ndebele, Tsonga, Pedi, and more.
From "Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood" by Trevor Noah
On one side are Prime Minister Robert Mugabe and nearly 6 million members of the Shona tribes; opposing them are Joshua Nkomo, the rival nationalist leader, and the 1.5 million-strong Ndebeles.
From Time Magazine Archive
Some 1,200 of Nkomo's onetime rebels have deserted the armed forces, returning to Matabeleland, homeland of the Ndebeles.
From Time Magazine Archive
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.
