name · noun · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
UK:/swəˈhiːli/
US:/swɑˈhili/
US:/swəˈhili/
Southern-England:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
rhymes with -hiːli
CMU ARPABET:S W AA0 HH IY1 L IY0
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
1
name
Meaning 1
An agglutinative language of the Bantu branch widely spoken in East Africa. Born in its modern form from the hybridization of the Arabic and Bantu cultures, it was the language of the traders in East Africa, and spread along the routes of trade.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
2
noun
Meaning 2
A member of various ethnic groups — mainly Bantu, Afro-Arab and Comorian — inhabiting the Swahili coast.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: Waswahili
Antonyms: none provided
3
noun
Meaning 3
the most widely spoken Bantu languages; the official language of Kenya and Tanzania and widely used as a lingua franca in east and central Africa
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: Bantu, Bantoid language
History
Etymology
Borrowed from Swahili Mswahili / Kiswahili, from Arabic سَوَاحِلِيّ (sawāḥiliyy, “(people) of the coasts”), from سَوَاحِل (sawāḥil, “coasts”), broken plural of سَاحِل (sāḥil, “coast”).
Across languages
Translations
79 source translations are retained for this English entry.
Amharic:
ስዋሂሊኛ
(səwahiliña)
— language
Arabic:
السَّوَاحِلِيَّة
(as-sawāḥiliyya)
— language
Armenian:
սվահիլի
(svahili)
— language
Assamese:
চোৱাহিলি
(süahili)
— language
Asturian:
suaḥili
— language
Azerbaijani:
suahili dili
— language
Azerbaijani:
суаһили дили
— language
Basque:
swahili
— language
Belarusian:
суахі́лі
(suaxíli)
— language
Bulgarian:
суахи́ли
(suahíli)
— language
Carpathian Rusyn:
свагілі
(svahili)
— language
Carpathian Rusyn:
кісвагілі
(kisvahili)
— language
Catalan:
suahili
— language
Chichewa:
Chiswahili
— language
Chinese Cantonese:
斯瓦希里語
(si1 ngaa5 hei5 lei5 jyu5)
— language
Chinese Mandarin:
斯瓦希里語 /斯瓦希里语
(Sīwǎxīlǐyǔ)
— language
