Sengi

//ˈsɛŋɡi// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any of several small, insectivorous long-nosed mammals, of the family Macroscelididae within the Macroscelidea order, native to Africa.

    "Four-toed elephant shrew or sengi Petrodromus tetradactylus"

  2. 2
    A former (1967–1993) monetary unit of Zaire, one hundredth of a likuta, and one ten-thousandth of a zaire; it was issued only in ten sengi coins. historical

Synonyms

All synonyms
elephant shrewjumping shrewmacroscelidid

Example

More examples

"Four-toed elephant shrew or sengi Petrodromus tetradactylus"

Etymology

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Swahili sengi, probably from another Bantu language (compare Giryama sanje).

Etymology 2

PIE word *pénkʷe Borrowed from Kongo sengi, senki, from French cinq (“five”) (in the sense of five sous). Doublet of cinque, fin (“five currency units”), finnuf, five, pimp (“five”), ponzu, and punch (“beverage”).

Related phrases

elephant shrew

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