overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

African.

Of or pertaining to Africa.

7 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈæf.ɹɪ.kən//ˈæf.ɹə.kən/
  1. Of or pertaining to Africa.

  2. Black; (dated, offensive) synonym of negroid.

    The truth is that I know the guy had African skin and a shirt of some sort.
Where this word comes from

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.

noun/ˈæf.ɹɪ.kən//ˈæf.ɹə.kən/
  1. A native of Africa; also one ethnologically belonging to an African race.

Where this word comes from

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.

FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

African has 7 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

African studioAfrican workshello, African

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.