Songhai

American  

[song-gahy] / sɒŋˈgaɪ /

noun

• Songhais,
  plural
• Songhai
  plural

1. a member of a group of peoples living along the Niger River in the area of Timbuktu and Gao in Mali and in adjacent areas of Niger and Burkina Faso.

2. a West African empire dominated by the Songhai that flourished in the 15th and 16th centuries.

3. the Nilo-Saharan language of the Songhai.

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Songhai British  

/ sɒŋˈɡaɪ /

noun

1. a member of a Nilotic people of W Africa, living chiefly in Mali and Niger in the central Niger valley

2. the language or group of dialects spoken by this people, now generally regarded as forming a branch of the Nilo-Saharan family

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• Songhai
  plural
• Songhais
  plural

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Songhai

“ECOWAS said they had a non-coup policy,” said Adedayo Ademuwagun, a Lagos-based analyst with Songhai Advisory, a risk assessment firm.

From New York Times ● Nov. 28, 2023

Growth continued under his successors, especially Askia the Great, who used Islam to further his control and brought Songhai into its golden age.

From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022

Outmatched, the larger Songhai army was defeated at the Battle of Tondibi, and Askia Ishaq II was killed.

From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022

The collapse of both Songhai and Kanem-Bornu allowed emergent polities like Dahomey, Oyo, and Segou to flourish, but tensions soon arose among them as competition for trade escalated.

From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022

And for myself, I lie in my hammock at night and whisper the names to the darkness: Dahomey, Taghaza, Sankore, Accra, the ancient realm of Songhai.

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson