Swahili

[ swah-hee-lee ]
/ swɑˈhi li /

noun, plural Swa·hi·lis, (especially collectively) Swa·hi·li for 1.

a member of a Bantu people of Zanzibar and the neighboring coast of Africa.
Also Kiswahili, 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.

OTHER WORDS FROM Swahili

Swa·hi·li·an, adjective

Example sentences from the Web for swahili

British Dictionary definitions for swahili

Swahili
/ (swɑːˈhiːlɪ) /

noun

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
Also called: Mswahili, Waswahili plural -lis or -li a member of a people speaking this language, living chiefly in Zanzibar

adjective

of or relating to the Swahilis or their language

Derived forms of Swahili

Swahilian, adjective

Word Origin for Swahili

C19: from Arabic sawāhil coasts