name, noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A striped bovine mammal found in Africa, Tragelaphus eurycerus.
2. 2
   Either of a pair of small drums of Cuban origin, played by beating with the hands.

   "He's banging on the bongos like a chimpanzee."

3. 3
   An ethnic group living at the eastern side of the Albert Nile River in northwestern Uganda and in neighbouring South Sudan in small, scattered settlements south and east of Wau. plural, plural-only
4. 4
   large forest antelope of central Africa having a reddish-brown coat with white stripes and spiral horns wordnet
5. 5
   An agricultural people of Gabon in equatorial Africa. plural, plural-only

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6. 6
   a small drum; played with the hands wordnet

Verb

1. 1
   To play the bongo drums. intransitive
2. 2
   Of the heart, etc.: to beat with an irregular rhythm. intransitive
3. 3
   To hit something rhythmically with the hands. transitive

Proper Noun

1. 1
   A Central Sudanic language spoken by the Bongo people in sparsely populated areas of Bahr al Ghazal in South Sudan.
2. 2
   A gewog of Chhukha District, Bhutan.

Synonyms

All synonyms

bongo drumbabongobazimbaboocercus eurycerusbungudor

Example

More examples

"He's banging on the bongos like a chimpanzee."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Spanish bongo.

Etymology 2

From United States Spanish bongó, from a Bantu language; probably Ekele boungu.

Related phrases

bongo flavabongo partytragelaphus eurycerus

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.