a language of E Africa that is an official language of Kenya and Tanzania and is widely used as a lingua franca throughout E and central Africa. It is a member of the Bantu group of the Niger-Congo family, originally spoken in Zanzibar, and has a large number of loan words taken from Arabic and other languages
2. Also called: Mswahili, WaswahiliWord forms: plural-lis or -li
a member of a people speaking this language, living chiefly in Zanzibar