Ndebele
Americannoun
plural
Ndebeles,plural
Ndebele-
Also called Matabele. a member of a Nguni people of the Transvaal and Zimbabwe.
-
the Bantu language of these people.
noun
-
a member of a Negroid people of Zimbabwe See also Matabele
-
the language of this people, belonging to the Bantu grouping of the Niger-Congo family
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.
The people in the area today are mostly farmers of the Ndebele ethnic group, whose ancestors migrated from the north in several waves starting about 4000 years ago.
From Science Magazine • Nov. 27, 2024
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
Ukwaluka, or traditional initiation, is seen as a necessary part of the passage from boyhood to manhood by some of the country's largest ethnic groups, including the Xhosa and Ndebele.
From BBC • Dec. 20, 2019
“Authorities are not comfortable with this subject,” producer Zenzele Ndebele told the screening crowd on Wednesday night.
From Seattle Times • Oct. 18, 2018
Of the African languages, Zulu has the largest number of native speakers, but we couldn’t keep that without also having Xhosa and Tswana and Ndebele.
From "Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood" by Trevor Noah
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.
