African
adj, noun ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A native of Africa; also one ethnologically belonging to an African race.
"Africans constitute significantly growing populations not only in major urban centers such as New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, and Atlanta but also in small and midsize cities in states such as Ohio and Maine."
- 2 a native or inhabitant of Africa wordnet
- 1 Of or pertaining to Africa.
"Spain’s Melilla, one of two small exclaves of EU land on the African continent, has long been the strongest distillation of fortress Europe."
- 2 Black; (dated, offensive) synonym of negroid.
"The truth is that I know the guy had African skin and a shirt of some sort."
- 1 of or relating to the nations of Africa or their peoples wordnet
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"When you watch television or listen to the radio, the music which you hear is often African in origin."
Etymology
Attested as a noun in early New English Aphricane, Africans (plural), Middle English as Affrican, Aufrican and Old English as Africanas (“Africans”) (only plural). From Latin āfricānae, from āfricānus, from Āfricus. The adjective appears in the 16th century, as Affricane, Africane, African. Latin Āfricus is from Āfri (singular Āfer), the name of an ancient people of North Africa (near Carthage, in Tunisia), with the suffix -icus. āfricānus is formed by addition of the -ānus suffix. By surface analysis, Africa + -an.
Related phrases
More for "african"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.