Ndebele
//(ə)ndəˈbeɪleɪ// name, noun
name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A person from South Africa. plural, plural-only
- 2 a Bantu language sometimes considered a dialect of Zulu wordnet
- 3 A person from Zimbabwe. plural, plural-only
"Furthermore, Britain's show of disapproval for Mugabe's Zanu-PF government during the land seizures was in conflict with its largely silent approach on the 1980s Gukurahundi conflict, in which Mugabe ordered the massacre of up to 20,000 Ndebele civilians."
Proper Noun
- 1 Any of the languages spoken by these two peoples: Northern Ndebele and the not closely related Southern Ndebele.
"And look, that’s you a few years later, holding up a package at a prize-giving ceremony — throughout primary you always came first in English and Ndebele class."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"The Republic of South Africa’s official languages are: Afrikaans, English, Northern Sotho, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, and Zulu."
Related phrases
More for "ndebele"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.