African

IPA/ˈafɹɪkən/
KK[ˈæfrəkən]IPA/ˈæfrəkən/

African — adjective

1. coming from Africa, or having a connection with the continent's countries, peopl

1.adjectiveA2
Definition

coming from Africa, or having a connection with the continent's countries, peoples, languages, or cultures.

Example

Chimamanda is a Nigerian novelist whose African storytelling has reached readers worldwide.

African + noun describing cultural origin

The museum in Cape Town displays African masks made by Yoruba and Zulu artists.

African + plural noun for cultural objects

Common collocations
  • African country
  • African language
  • African music
  • African art
  • African cuisine
  • West/East/North/Southern African

Grammar Patterns

African + noun

Usage Note

Always written with a capital A, even in the middle of a sentence; 'african' is incorrect. Often combined with a region word (West African, East African, North African, Southern African) when more precision is needed, since Africa includes 54 very different countries.

Common Mistakes

She enjoys african music.
She enjoys African music.
the word is a proper adjective and must always start with a capital A.
He speaks the African language.
He speaks an African language such as Amharic.
there is no single 'African language'; the continent has over 1,000 languages, so use 'an African language' or name a specific one.

African — noun

Word family

  • Africa
    nounA1
  • Afro-
    prefixC1
  • Pan-African
    adjectiveC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

African is the broadest label and simply means belonging to the whole continent — its 54 countries, peoples, languages, or cultures. Sub-Saharan narrows the reference to countries south of the Sahara desert, and is mostly used in geography, economics, or development reports (Sub-Saharan agriculture, Sub-Saharan economies). Pan-African is political and cultural in flavour: it describes ideas, movements, or organisations that aim to unite all African peoples (a Pan-African film festival, the Pan-African Parliament). African American is a different term entirely — it refers to Americans of African descent, especially Black Americans, and should not be used for someone who lives in or comes from Africa today. Compare: 'Nala is an African chef from Senegal' (born in Africa) vs 'Citlali is an African American chef from Atlanta' (American with African ancestry).

African ↗Sub-SaharanPan-AfricanAfrican American

Common collocations

Nouns

  • African country
  • African language
  • African music
  • African art
  • African cuisine
  • African history
  • African culture
  • African leader
  • African student

Phrases

  • West African
  • East African
  • North African
  • Southern African
  • Sub-Saharan African
  • young Africans
  • the first African to

Prepositions

  • from Africa
  • across Africa

Etymology

LatinOld FrenchMiddle EnglishEnglish

Borrowed from Latin Africanus, meaning 'of Africa', which itself came from Africa — the Roman name for the province around modern Tunisia. Romans first used it for the people of Carthage and the surrounding region, and over centuries the meaning stretched to cover the whole continent and all its peoples. English picked up both the adjective and noun uses by the late Middle Ages.