African

Of or pertaining to Africa.

Adjective

  1. Of or pertaining to Africa.
    • Spain’s Melilla, one of two small exclaves of EU land on the African continent, has long been the strongest distillation of fortress Europe. - 2022 March 10, Daniel Howden, “Europe has rediscovered compassion for...
  2. Black; (dated, offensive) synonym of negroid.
    • The truth is that I know the guy had African skin and a shirt of some sort.
    • In vivo and in vitro approaches in understanding the differences between Caucasian and African skin types: […] - 2013, Stem Cells—Advances in Research and Application: 2013 Edition, ScholarlyEditions, →ISBN, page 311:

Origin

Attested as a noun in early New English Aphricane, Africans (plural), Middle English as Affrican, Aufrican and Old English as Africanas (“Africans”) (only plural). From Latin āfricānae, from āfricānus, from Āfricus. The adjective appears in the 16th century, as Affricane, Africane, African. Latin Āfricus is from Āfri (singular Āfer), the name of an ancient people of North Africa (near Carthage, in Tunisia), with the suffix -icus. āfricānus is formed by addition of the -ānus suffix. By surface analysis, Africa + -an.

Forms

more African most African Afrikan Afric

Hyponyms

Congolese Ethiopian Maghrebi Mozambican Ugandan Zimbabwean

Derived

Affrilachia Affrilachian Afrabian African-American African-American English African American Vernacular English African angelshark African anteater African baobab African barbet African blackwood African broadbill African buffalo African bullfrog African cardamom African cherry orange African civet African crake African crested porcupine African custard apple African dwarf sawshark African elephant African emerald cuckoo African English

Noun

  1. A native of Africa; also one ethnologically belonging to an African race.
    • Africans constitute significantly growing populations not only in major urban centers such as New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, and Atlanta but also in small and midsize cities in states such as...
    • But new research suggests another possibility: all Africans may have ancestry from “West Eurasian” populations which moved back into Africa after the “Out of Africa” event ~50,000 years ago.[…] - 2019, Razib Khan,...
    • The Cameroonian’s case is unique as many Africans denied Schengen visas rarely appeal or contest the decisions in court. - 2025 May 21, Larry Madowo, “Africans lost nearly $70M to denied visas applications to Europe in...

Forms

Africans Afrikan Afric

Synonyms

African Afro- Nubian

Hypernyms

inhabitant human man person

Hyponyms

Maghrebi sub-Saharan Algerian Ambazonian Angolan Beninese Beninois Bissau-Guinean Botswanan Burkinabe Burundian Cameroonian Cape Verdean Carthaginian Central African Ceutan Chadian Comoran Congolese Djiboutian East African Egyptian Equatoguinean Equatorial Guinean

Derived

Africanism