Xhosa
Americannoun
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a member of a Nguni people of eastern Cape Province, Republic of South Africa.
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the Bantu language of the Xhosa.
noun
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a member of a cattle-rearing Negroid people of southern Africa, living chiefly in South Africa
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the language of this people, belonging to the Bantu group of the Niger-Congo family: one of the Nguni languages, closely related to Swazi and Zulu and characterized by several clicks in its sound system
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Example Sentences
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He translates the song’s lyrics from Zulu and Xhosa, two of South Africa’s 12 national languages, and offers a broader critique on the film.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 27, 2026
Kendi — the “X” stands for his middle name, Xolani, a Xhosa and Zulu word for peace — pulls no punches in making such connections.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 13, 2025
Ms Nayimuli said that while growing up she would constantly speak Xhosa, her mother tongue and one of South Africa’s official languages, to “prove her South African-ness”.
From BBC ● Aug. 2, 2024
In Johannesburg and the Eastern Cape, the vocal tradition of isicathamiya and the steady, Zulu and Xhosa dance rhythms of the regions exerted strong influence.
From New York Times ● Jun. 5, 2024
The southernmost Bantu people, the Xhosa, stopped at the Fish River on South Africa’s south coast, 500 miles east of Cape Town.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Zulu's protagonist is a Zulu by the name of Ali Neuman, a survivor of inter-tribal brutality when Xhosas and Zulus were fighting for dominance as South Africa moved towards democracy.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 30, 2010
Zulus and Xhosas are among the groups were polygamy is practised, but it has largely become a rural phenomenon.
From BBC ● Feb. 3, 2010
In theory, Matanzima's nation will have a population of nearly 3.3 million Xhosas.
From Time Magazine Archive
Urban life tended to abrade tribal and ethnic distinctions, and instead of being Xhosas, or Sothos, or Zulus, or Shangaans, we were Alexandrians.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
Since “independence” was foisted on the Transkei, the tens of thousands of Xhosas living in Crossroads were to be stripped of their South African citizenship and deported to the tribal reserve.
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
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.
