Kenya

//ˈkɛn.jə// name

name ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A country in East Africa. Official name: Republic of Kenya.

    "The object of the builders was to push on to Uganda as quickly as possible; one result was that Kenya was "discovered" on the way."

Example

More examples

"Kenya used to be a British colony."

Etymology

From the name of Mount Kenya, about which several theories exist, including * from Kikuyu kere nyaga (“white mountain”) (because it is snow-capped) * from Kamba kii nyaa (“ostrich mountain”) * from Kikuyu kĩrĩma (“mountain”)

Related phrases

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