Swahili
Americannoun
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Swahilis,
plural
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Swahili
plural
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a member of a Bantu people of Zanzibar and the neighboring coast of Africa.
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Also Kiswahili or ki-Swahili the Bantu language of the Swahili people, used also as a lingua franca in Tanzania, Kenya, and parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
noun
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Also called: Kiswahili. a language of E Africa that is an official language of Kenya and Tanzania and is widely used as a lingua franca throughout E and central Africa. It is a member of the Bantu group of the Niger-Congo family, originally spoken in Zanzibar, and has a large number of loan words taken from Arabic and other languages
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Also called: Mswahili. Waswahili. a member of a people speaking this language, living chiefly in Zanzibar
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of Swahili
First recorded in 1810–15; from Swahili, from Arabic sawāḥiliy “of or pertaining to the coast,” equivalent to sawāḥil, plural of sāḥil “coast” + -iy adjective and noun suffix
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.
See Examples For:
A crowd then gathered around the corpse, singing a dirge in a local Swahili dialect.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
Today, it is common to hear Swahili spoken in the valley rather than the Hadzabe language.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 9, 2026
He arrived with the ability to speak three languages — French, Swahili and Lingala.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 2, 2026
Victor, Mark, Erik and Moses were included in WhatsApp groups where fellow Kenyans reassured them in Swahili that they were heading for good salaries and exciting new lives.
From Barron's ● Feb. 9, 2026
She might have been talking Swahili for all Gilly could understand.
From "The Great Gilly Hopkins" by Katherine Paterson
The men advanced along the causeway, the Swahilis first.
From Settlers and Scouts by Herbert Strang
He had drilled the Swahilis whom he had brought from the coast, and given them guns, so that he had now an armed force of four hundred men.
From The Explorer by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
They had reached the bank and were wheeling to burst upon the Swahilis, when they were suddenly descried by those who had crossed.
From Settlers and Scouts by Herbert Strang
The members are of all tribes, with possibly a slight preponderance of Swahilis and Somalis.
From African Camp Fires by Stewart Edward White
Four of the Swahilis were askaris, or armed porters.
From Settlers and Scouts by Herbert Strang
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.
