Somali

See also: somali, somalí, and Sómali

English

Etymology

From or akin to Somali Soomaali.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /səˈmɑːli/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /soʊˈmɑːli/, /səˈmɑːli/
• Hyphenation: So‧ma‧li

Proper noun

Somali

1. (uncountable) A Cushitic language spoken mainly in Somalia, eastern Ethiopia, Djibouti, and eastern Kenya.

   Somali is the primary language of Somalia

2. (uncountable) Somali language and literature as an object of study.

   I'm learning Somali.

A Somali kitten (sense 5).

Noun

Somali (countable and uncountable, plural Somali or Somalis)

1. (chiefly countable, collective) An ethnic group native to the Somali Peninsula; a Somali, a group of Somalis, the Somalis.

   Historically, Somalis were a nomadic people herding camels, goats, and sheep. Nowadays, many if not most Somalis are urbanized people.

   • 2025 December 19, Ryan Doerfler, Samuel Moyn, “It’s time to accept that the US supreme court is illegitimate and must be replaced”, in The Guardian‎^[1], archived from the original on 19 December 2025:

     Authorized by the court to engage in racial profiling, masked federal agents continue to descend upon “Democrat-run” cities, subjecting Latinos and now Somalis to ongoing abuse.

2. (chiefly uncountable, collective and in the plural) The Somali ethnic group as a whole; the Somali.

   The Somali are an ethnic group of Cushitic origin indigenous to the Somali Peninsula. Their language is called Somali.

3. (countable, collective) A citizen or resident from the country of Somalia.
4. (countable, collective) A person from a Somali-majority republic, state, or region, including but not limited to: the unrecognized Republic of Somaliland, the Somali region of Ethiopia (often called the Ogaden, but more neutrally the Somali region), or autonomous states within Somalia's federal system such as Puntland.
5. A domestic cat breed derived from the Abyssinian cat.

   Synonyms: fox cat, long-haired Abyssinian

Usage notes

• Of the third sense, the term Somalian is sometimes used as an alternative to Somali to emphasize civic affiliations to the Republic of Somalia and de-emphasize ethnic affiliations. Using the term Somalian may be offensive to some Somalis as it is deemed nonstandard. Some Somali ethnonationalists do not consider all citizens of Somalia to be Somali. Some Somali separatists prefer terms such as Somalian or Somalilander in civic contexts over the ethnolinguistic connoted term Somali.

Synonyms

• Thesaurus:Somali

Hypernyms

• (person from Somalia): Cushite, Horner, Horn African

Translations

a language

• Afrikaans: Somali, Somalies (af)
• Arabic: صُومَالِيَّة (ar) f (ṣomāliyya)
• Armenian: սոմալի (hy) (somali)
• Asturian: somalín (ast)
• Basque: somaliera (eu)
• Belarusian: самалійская f (samalijskaja)
• Bulgarian: сомалийски m (somalijski)
• Catalan: somali (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 索馬里語 / 索马里语 (zh) (Suǒmǎlǐ-yǔ), 索馬利亞語 / 索马利亚语

• Czech: somálština f
• Dutch: Somalisch (nl) n, Somali (nl) n
• Esperanto: somala lingvo
• Finnish: somali (fi), somalin kieli
• French: somali (fr) m
• German: Somali (de) n, Somalisch (de) n
• Greek: σομαλικά (el) n pl (somaliká)
• Gujarati: સોમાલી m (somālī)
• Hindi: सोमाली (hi) m (somālī)
• Hungarian: szomáli (hu) m
• Icelandic: Sómalska m
• Irish: Somáilis f
• Japanese: ソマリア語 (Somaria-go), ソマリ語 (ja) (Somari-go)
• Khmer: ភាសាសូម៉ាលី (pʰiesaa soomaalii)
• Korean: 소말리어 (somallieo)
• Latvian: somāļu valoda f, somāliešu valoda f
• Lithuanian: somalių (lt)
• Macedonian: сомалиски m (somaliski)
• Maltese: Is-Somalu m
• Marathi: सोमाली (somālī)
• Moksha: сомалиень (somaľijeń)
• Navajo: Soomáálii bizaad
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: somali (no) m, somalisk m

  Nynorsk: somali m, somalisk (nn) m

• Polish: somalijski (pl) m
• Portuguese: somali (pt) m
• Romanian: somaleză (ro) f, somali (ro) f
• Russian: сомали́йский (ru) m (somalíjskij)
• Scots: Somali
• Somali: af somaali (so)
• Sorbian:

  Upper Sorbian: somališćina f

• Spanish: somalí (es) m
• Swahili: Kisomali (sw)
• Swedish: somaliska (sv) c
• Thai: ภาษาโซมาลี (paasăa sohmaalee)
• Tigrinya: ሶማሊ (somali)
• Turkish: Somalice (tr)
• Ukrainian: сомалійська f (somalijsʹka)
• Volapük: please add this translation if you can
• Walloon: Somalyin
• Welsh: Somalïeg f

a person from Somalia or of Somali descent

• Afrikaans: Somaliër
• Arabic: صُومَالِيّ m (ṣomāliyy), صُومَالِيَّة (ar) f (ṣomāliyya)
• Asturian: somalín (ast) m, somalina (ast) f
• Basque: somaliar
• Catalan: somali (ca) m or f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 索馬里人 (zh) (Suǒmǎlǐ-rén)

• Czech: Somálec (cs) m, Somálka (cs) f
• Dutch: Somaliër (nl) m, Somalische (nl) f
• Esperanto: somaliano (man or woman), somalianino (woman)
• Finnish: somali (fi)
• French: Somalien (fr) m, Somalienne (fr) f
• Galician: somalí (gl) m
• German: (ethnic) Somali (de) m or f, (citizen) Somalier (de) m, Somalierin (de) f
• Greek: Σομαλός (el) m (Somalós), Σομαλή f (Somalí)
• Hindi: सुमाली (hi) m (sumālī)
• Irish: Somálach m
• Latvian: somālietis m, somāliete f
• Lithuanian: somalietis (lt) m, somalietė (lt) f
• Marathi: सोमाली (somālī)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: somalier m

  Nynorsk: somaliar (nn) m

• Polish: Somalijczyk (pl) m, Somalijka (pl) f
• Portuguese: somali (pt) m or f, somaliano (pt) m
• Romanian: somalez (ro) m, somaleză (ro) f
• Russian: сомали́ец (ru) m (somalíjec), сомали́йка (ru) f (somalíjka)
• Spanish: somalí (es)
• Swahili: Msomali (sw)
• Turkish: Somalili (tr)

See also

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Somali terms
• Somali on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Somali (cat) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Category:Somali (cat) on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

Adjective

Somali (not comparable)

1. Of, from, or pertaining to Somalia, the Somali people or language.

Derived terms

• Mali
• pan-Somalism
• Somalicoon
• Somali crow
• Somali giraffe
• Somali myrrhor
• Somaliness
• Somali ostrich
• Somalism
• Somalist
• Somali wild ass
• Somalization
• Somalize

Translations

pertaining to Somalia

• Afrikaans: Somalies (af)
• Arabic: صُومَالِيّ (ṣomāliyy)
• Asturian: somalín (ast)
• Basque: somaliar
• Catalan: somali (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 索馬里的 (zh) (Suǒmǎlǐ-de)

• Czech: somálský (cs)
• Dutch: Somalisch (nl)
• Esperanto: somalia
• Finnish: somalialainen (fi), somali- (fi), somalilais-
• French: somalien (fr)
• Galician: somalí (gl)
• German: somalisch (de)
• Greek: σομαλικός m (somalikós)
• Irish: Somálach
• Latvian: somāļu, somāliešu
• Marathi: सोमाली (somālī)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: somalisk

  Nynorsk: somalisk (nn)

• Polish: somalijski (pl) m
• Portuguese: somali (pt), somaliano (pt)
• Romanian: somalez (ro)
• Russian: сомали́йский (ru) (somalíjskij)
• Spanish: somalí (es)
• Swahili: Kisomali (sw)
• Welsh: Somalïaidd m or f, Somalaidd m or f

Further reading

• Somali–English Dictionary: from Webster’s Dictionary — the Rosetta Edition.
• ISO 639-1 code so, ISO 639-3 code som (SIL)
• Ethnologue entry for Somali, som ⁠

Anagrams

• Alimos, Islamo-, Siloam, mailos, maolis, salomi

Afrikaans

Noun

Somali (plural Somali's)

1. synonym of Somaliër (“Somali, person from Somalia”)

Proper noun

Somali

1. synonym of Somalies (“Somali language”)

Lithuanian

Proper noun

Somãli

1. vocative of Somãlis

Turkish

Etymology

Borrowed from French Somalie.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /so.má.li/, [so̞.mä́.l̠ʲi]

• Audio:

  (file)

Proper noun

Somali

1. Somalia (a country in East Africa, in the Horn of Africa)

Declension

Declension of Somali

	singular
nominative	Somali
accusative	Somali'yi
dative	Somali'ye
locative	Somali'de
ablative	Somali'den
genitive	Somali'nin

Possessive forms of Somali

	singular	plural
benim (my)	Somali'm	Somalilerim Somali'lerim
senin (your)	Somali'n	Somalilerin Somali'lerin
onun (his/her/its)	Somali'si	Somalileri Somali'leri
bizim (our)	Somali'miz	Somalilerimiz Somali'lerimiz
sizin (your)	Somali'niz	Somalileriniz Somali'leriniz
onların (their)	Somali'si Somalileri Somali'leri	Somalileri Somali'leri

See also

countries in Africa: Afrika ülkeleri (appendix)edit

• Angola
• Batı Sahra
• Benin
• Botsvana
• Burkina Faso
• Burundi
• Cezayir
• Cibuti
• Çad
• Ekvator Ginesi
• Eritre
• Esvatini
• Etiyopiya
• Fas
• Fildişi Sahili
• Gabon
• Gambiya
• Gana
• Gine
• Gine-Bissau
• Güney Afrika
• Güney Sudan
• Kamerun
• Kenya
• Komorlar
• Kongo Cumhuriyeti
• Kongo Demokratik Cumhuriyeti
• Lesotho
• Liberya
• Libya
• Madagaskar
• Malavi
• Mali
• Mauritius
• Mısır
• Moritanya
• Mozambik
• Namibya
• Nijer
• Nijeria
• Orta Afrika Cumhuriyeti
• Ruanda
• Senegal
• Seyşeller
• Sierra Leone
• Somali
• Sudan
• São Tomé ve Príncipe
• Tanzanya
• Togo
• Tunus
• Uganda
• Yeşil Burun
• Zambiya
• Zimbabve