Kwanzaa
/ˈkwɑnzə/ name
name ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 a festival featuring African-American culture; celebrated between Christmas and New Year wordnet
Proper Noun
- 1 A week-long African-American cultural holiday held between December 26 and January 1.
"On Tuesday night at the Club Serene in Brooklyn, Mayor Koch proclaimed Kwanzaa Week in New York. Then he told the crowd of about 400 that he had practiced his Swahili in order to pronounce correctly such exotic-sounding words as kujichagulia (self-determination), ujamaa (cooperative economics) and imani (faith), the theme of Kwanzaa '83."
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"Kwanzaa is celebrated from December 26 to January 1."
Etymology
Coined by Maulana Karenga from the Swahili phrase matunda ya kwanza (“first fruits”). The additional “a” was added to “Kwanza” so that the word would have seven letters, one for each of the Seven Principles of Blackness.