English Swahili Dictionary
Free offline English-Swahili dictionary. Look up translations instantly without internet. Perfect for travelers to East Africa and Swahili learners.
Key Features
100% Offline
Look up Swahili words anytime, anywhere — no internet connection needed.
Fast Search
Instant results as you type. Find the word you need in milliseconds.
Completely Free
No hidden costs, no subscriptions, no in-app purchases required.
Android & iOS
Available on both Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
Comprehensive
Thousands of words and phrases covering everyday vocabulary and more.
Bidirectional
Search from English to Swahili or Swahili to English seamlessly.
About English Swahili Dictionary
A comprehensive English-Swahili offline dictionary for travelers to East Africa, language learners, and anyone interested in one of Africa's most widely spoken languages.
About Swahili
Swahili is spoken by over 100 million people across East Africa, including Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is the most widely spoken African language and serves as a lingua franca for the region.
Who is this app for? Travelers to Kenya, Tanzania, East Africa, Swahili learners, NGO workers.
The easiest African language to start, for good reasons
Swahili has advantages an English speaker notices immediately. It uses the Latin alphabet with essentially phonetic spelling — one letter, one sound. Stress falls predictably on the second-to-last syllable. And unusually for a Bantu language, standard Swahili is not tonal, which removes the single biggest obstacle learners face with most of its relatives.
It also carries a substantial layer of Arabic loanwords from centuries of Indian Ocean trade, and a smaller layer from English and Portuguese, so some vocabulary is already partly familiar.
Noun classes replace gender
This is the real work. Swahili nouns are sorted into classes — the usual count is fifteen to eighteen — and each class has its own prefixes for singular and plural. It functions somewhat like grammatical gender, except with far more categories and, crucially, with agreement spreading across the sentence.
When a noun's class changes, the adjectives, verbs and pronouns referring to it change their prefixes to match. So learning a noun means learning its class, because the class governs everything that agrees with it. The classes are loosely semantic — one covers people, another trees and plants, another abstractions — which helps, though the grouping is not fully predictable.
Verbs are built in slots
A Swahili verb assembles from ordered pieces: subject marker, tense marker, object marker, root. Ninakupenda breaks into ni (I) + na (present) + ku (you) + penda (love). Once you can read the slots, long verbs become transparent rather than intimidating.
Swahili is spoken as a first or second language by a very large number of people across East Africa and serves as a lingua franca in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is one of the working languages of the African Union.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Swahili tonal?
Standard Swahili is not, which is unusual among Bantu languages and a considerable advantage for learners. Spelling is also essentially phonetic and stress falls predictably on the second-to-last syllable.
What are noun classes?
Swahili sorts nouns into fifteen to eighteen classes, each with its own singular and plural prefixes. It works somewhat like grammatical gender but with more categories, and the class governs agreement on adjectives, verbs and pronouns throughout the sentence.
Why are Swahili verbs so long?
Because they assemble from ordered slots. Ninakupenda is ni (I) plus na (present) plus ku (you) plus penda (love). Once you can read the slots the length stops being a problem — each piece has one job.
Does Swahili contain Arabic words?
A substantial number, from centuries of Indian Ocean trade along the East African coast, with smaller layers from English and Portuguese. The name Swahili itself derives from an Arabic word for coast.
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