panga

American  

[pahng-guh] / ˈpɑŋ gə /

noun

1. a large, broad-bladed African knife used as a weapon or as an implement for cutting heavy jungle growth, sugarcane, etc.; machete.

---

panga British  

/ ˈpæŋɡə /

noun

1. a broad heavy knife of E Africa, used as a tool or weapon

2. a small fishing boat first developed in Japan and now used chiefly in US and Central American waters

---

Etymology

Origin of panga

Borrowed into English from Swahili around 1930–35

Example Sentences

A year earlier, a man and two women died when a panga boat crashed into rocks at the base of the cliffs of Point Loma in San Diego.

From Los Angeles Times • May 7, 2025

Alcarez piloted a panga boat — a small, fishing-style vessel often used by human smugglers — to illegally bring an estimated 12 people into the United States from Mexico, prosecutors said.

From Seattle Times • Jul. 12, 2023

Guide Juan Chay cut the engine of our panga some 40 minutes’ ride north of the city of Campeche, in the Gulf of Mexico.

From Washington Post • Apr. 1, 2022

Once, I saw my male English teacher wielding a panga, or African machete.

From Time • Aug. 31, 2016

When she had found one long and straight enough, she whittled an end with the panga.

From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer