Turkana

American

[toor-kah-nuh] / tʊərˈkɑ nə /

noun

plural

Turkanas,

plural

Turkana

a member of a seminomadic people of northwestern Kenya and bordering areas of Uganda.
the Nilotic language of the Turkana.
Formerly Rudolf. Lake. a lake in E Africa, in NE Kenya. 185 miles (298 km) long; 3,500 sq. mi. (9,100 sq. km).

Turkana British

/ tɜːˈkɑːnə /

noun

Former name: Lake Rudolf. a long narrow lake in E Africa, in the Great Rift Valley. Area: 7104 sq km (2743 sq miles)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.

A new study published in Nature Communications reveals astonishing evidence of this long-lived technological tradition in Kenya's Turkana Basin.

From Science Daily • Nov. 4, 2025

Cherotich says her own childhood was the inspiration for her first feature film script as she grew up Turkana.

From BBC • Jan. 25, 2025

When a team of excavators in the Turkana Basin, an archaeological site in Kenya, dug deeper, they found more evidence that ancient human ancestors had existed in the region: footprints.

From Salon • Nov. 29, 2024

Ikeny, 15, was cast in “Nawi” after the filmmakers visited numerous schools in Kenya’s Turkana County, where the story is set.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 22, 2024

Later on, when Kakuma was well established, the Turkana gathered firewood in the forests to trade with us for corn or clothes.

From "Lost Boy, Lost Girl" by John Bul Dau

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023