Somali

From or akin to Somali Soomaali.^[1]

• (UK) IPA^(key): /səˈmɑːli/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

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

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.

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

• 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.

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

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

Somali (not comparable)

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

• 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 ⁠

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

Somali (plural Somali's)

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

Somali

1. synonym of Somalies (“Somali language”)

Borrowed from French Somalie.

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

• Audio:

  (file)

Somali

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