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Glite Dictionary
🗣️ A Bantu language 🌍 Official language
Kiswahili

Kiswahili

1 7.3
An East African language spoken in countries such as Tanzania and Kenya
  • noun
  • /kɪsˈwɑːhɪli/
: suajili
  • I am learning Kiswahili to communicate better in Kenya.

Examples

  • Many people in Tanzania speak Kiswahili fluently.

  • She speaks Kiswahili fluently after living in Nairobi for several years.

  • Many students choose to study Kiswahili as their foreign language at university.

  • The film was subtitled in both English and Kiswahili for local audiences.

  • Many students choose to study Kiswahili as their foreign language at university.

  • She speaks Kiswahili fluently after living in Nairobi for several years.

  • The film was subtitled in both English and Kiswahili for local audiences.

Synonyms

Swahili
vsKiswahili
15 3.4

A language from East Africa spoken in Kenya and Tanzania and used as a common language across the region

is the native form of the same name rather than the English label
Swahili language
vsKiswahili
1 3.5

A language spoken in East Africa that many people use to talk to each other

is the native form of the same name rather than this English phrasing

Surface Forms

Kiswahili singular
Kiswahilis plural

Etymology

The word Kiswahili is made from the Bantu prefix Ki- for languages and Swahili, a word from Arabic that means 'coast'. So Kiswahili means 'language of the coast', which helps explain why it started and is spoken along the East African coast.