V.6. MISCELLANEOUS WORDS, PART 6/10 (mb-mpi)
Note: The “/” sign in the word definition separates two definitions of the same word depending on how it is pronounced.
– mbadi : pair of identical objects / crowd, mass / occasional work
– mbadi : hardness, vigour, strength, high price / ball game, spinning top / messenger, envoy
– mbadi : dear, so-and-so / raffia cloth
– mbadukulu : beginning
– mbadusu : hardness
– mbaka / mbakaka / mbaka-mbaka : dwarf, smallness, person who grows slowly
– mbaka : incomes, possessions, property, wealth
– mbakala : male
– mbakani : adversary, opponent, protagonist / fees, payment for services rendered
– mbaki : acquirer, taker, the one who seizes / prisoner, prey
– mbakisi : assistant, helper, auxiliary
– mbaku : boundary, limit, border / market place / species, kind / quality, shape, figure / adjective
– mbaku /mbakulu : payment, salary, gain, profit, catch, capture, hunting or fishing product
– mbakumunu : taking, capture, catch, action of catching, action of seizing
– mbakusulu : comprehension, understanding, grasp
– mbala : time / sweet potato / species of snake / genet
– mbalu : ferocity, cruelty, violence, spitefulness, nastiness, venom, poison
– mbalu : thought, recollection, remembrance, memory, reflection, idea / chatter
– mbalu : variability, inconstancy / moody, changeable or fickle person / melancholy
– mbalu : discontent, harsh words / species, kind / lath, shaving, splinter,chip / mortar, soot
– mbalu : flag / commodity, piece of merchandise, trade, merchant / high price
– mbamba : executioner, person who must demand the punishment of a murderer
– mbamba : rib, side / wicker / perseverance, insistence
– mbamba : wicker / cane / fleshy stone of a fruit, fleshy pit of a fruit / demijohn
– mbambi : uninitiated / wooden whistle, horn / brass pipe / border, boundary / district, region
– mbambu : vivacity to seize / chance, luck, happiness, success / payment, reward, income, profit
– mbambu : tablet, planchette / piece of cleared land / fleshy stone of a fruit
– mbana-mbana : infantile behaviour, childishness
– mbanda : rival, opponent
– mbandanu : beat, tapping, crackling, thunder, crash
– mbandu : generation, contemporaries, race / height of a person / age
– mbandu : period, era, generation
– mbandu : transport price, right of way, entrance fee, toll, tax, tribute
– mbandu : measure by tens for fabrics or for powder / gift, present, tip
– mbandu : species, kind / model, example / beginning of a job / stern of a canoe
– mbandudi : tax collector, employee of contributions
– mbanduku : surplus on a purchase
– mbandu-mbandu : in deposit, by layer, by recovery / from generation to generation
– mbandundu : violent thunderclap
– mbanga : house on stilts / boot, bundle, sheaf / something difficult to break
– mbanga : contradiction / reason, motive
– mbanga : jaw, mouth
– mbangadi : very high price, great value / hardness, firmness, strength
– mbangadi : someone who blames, who disapproves / harsh and cruel person, tyrant
– mbangala : beater, stick, club, cudgel / bar, lever, mace / lidded basket
– mbangala : heatwave, hot season corresponding to tropical summer
– mbangala : fruits of the second half of the dry season
– mbanga-mbanga : gigantic length
– mbangatala : great heat, suffocating heat, sweltering heat
– mbangazi : excessive heat, searing heat, fiery heat, burning heat, sun’s glare
– mbangazi : tyrant, despot, cruel person
– mbangi : witness / hardness, firmness / person who harvests medicinal plants, botanist
– mbangi : witness
– mbangisila / mbangitila : ardour, heat, warmth, zeal
– mbangu : crosspiece / wicker basket
– mbangudi : the one who explains, interpreter
– mbangudulu : explanation, translation, transformation
– mbanza : city, large urban area, large village
– mbanza-kimfumu : capital city
– mbanzi : thinker, inspiration, instigator / ribs
– mbanzilu : idea, thought
– mbasi / mbasinga : representative, proxy, delegate, ambassador, envoy / angel
– mbasila / mbasinga : smallness
– mbasu : irritation / hardness, roughness, dryness
– mbata : summit / slap / question / tip, commission / chair, seat
– mbatia : mute person, silent person
– mbatuku : lid, buckle, fastener
– mbawu : fire, blaze, inferno, heat / fee, retainer, payment for help
– mbaya : pride, vanity, ostentation, offensive speech, insulting speech / bifurcation, path
– mbazi : outside, courtyard, terrace, garden / tomorrow, future
– mbazi : public square, place to judge or deliberate, court
– mbazu / mbawu : fire, blaze, inferno, heat
– mbebe : task, job
– mbebele : stupidity / lethargy, simplicity / broken thing, something of little value
– mbebi : lazy, idle, lazy person, laybones, person who gets tired easily
– mbedi : wrong, fault, mistake
– mbeko : edge, proximity / hatred, revenge / wrong / loss, what we have lost / perch
– mbela : side, nearness, surroundings
– mbele : knife, dagger / sword / trigger of a rifle / game with clapping of hands
– mbelo : hatred, anger / existence, custom, way of being, quality
– mbelo : payment for the gift of reconciliation, payment for the loss of a lawsuit
– mbema : hunger, famine, scarcity / heaviness, unwieldiness, oppression, sth overwhelming
– mbemangani : strong quarrel
– mbemba : speckling similar to that of an eagle / eagle
– mbembe : red glass bead formerly used as currency
– mbembekete : width, size
– mbembela : proximity
– mbembele : great friendship, strong trust / calabash / porcelain flat plate / tinplate
– mbembo : voice, language / news / palaver / vote in an election
– mbembo : tax collector, tax receiver / funeral song, complaints / song
– mbembulua : stick for breaking, club for breaking
– mbenga : supreme court
– mbengi : taker, purchaser
– mbengila : red earth erected by ants / red spot on the skin, mark of a wound
– mbengo-mbengo : dangerous place, dangerous passage / dangerous work / promptness
– mbengululu : redness of the twilight
– mbeni / mbenia : enemy, adversary, opponent / the uninitiated who is not from the clan
– mbenza : great chief, great dignity / guard soldier, guardian angel / judge
– mbenza : unseeded plot of land / creases made on trousers’ legs during ironing
– mbenze : young man
– mbevo : patient, sick, suffering person
– mbi : bad, wrong, evil
– (m)biditezi : multimeter
– mbieka : coronation, crowning, investiture, crown
– mbiekolo : inauguration, inauguration party
– mbielenge : ringing of the ankle rings while walking
– mbiembele : old rifle, poor quality rifle
– mbiembie : braid, braided rope used as a wrist or ankle bracelet
– mbienga : yellow and thick copper wire, a kind of brass ring / yoke, handcuffs
– mbiengele : thin stick / brass ring or chain attached to the knives / rod, iron rod
– mbiengila : bottomless abyss
– mbiengo : quality of being good, magnificent or kind
– mbienzengele : chain, link, hindrance
– mbiesenge : which we meet without expecting it/ tinkling of the rings of the ankles
– mbiete : which is big and fat
– mbikudi : seer, clairvoyant, medium, soothsayer
– mbikudulu : prophecy, action of prophesying
– mbila : call, supplication, invitation
– mbimba : agreement, convention / commandment, precept of morality in marriage
– mbimbi : banana tree trunk/ taster
– mbimbu : piece given to taste / first clapping of hands to honor
– mbina : action of swallowing
– mbinda : gift of a chicken given to the creditor, down payment on the debt / fear, bad luck
– mbindama : duty, responsibility, condition
– mbindi : habit of wanting to interrupt or divert a conversation / someone who locks
– mbindukulu : commitment, duty, condition, obligation / ruler, rod, switch, lock, staple
– mbindukusua : impediment, difficulty in doing something
– mbindumunu : duty, responsibility
– mbingu : hunting, venery
– mbingulu : way to hunt, hunting
– mbiodi : child who begins to speak / talkative person, chatterbox
– mbiolo : chief, leader
– mbiu : surprise attack, sudden capture
– mbivulu : loss, ruin, misfortune, wrong
– mbivusu : evil, wrong, bad behaviour
– mbizi : fish, animal, game
– mbobela : small capital to start a business
– mbobi : smoker
– mbobo : club, stick
– mboboko : reddish vase
– mboboma : fearful person, cowardly person
– mbobu : which is red, which is reddish
– mbodi : aqueous humor, viscous fluid of a dead person / menses / lead, tin
– mbodi : banana tree trunk, rotten stump of a tree
– mbodi : way of unfolding the fabric from the hips and letting it fall over the belt
– mbofongo : extraordinary size
– mboka : cry, exclamation, proclamation / talk, chatter / hunger, craving / rapid / placenta
– mbokasani : word, name, appellation
– mboki : comrade, companion / redness, red / hat with a drooping tuft, red fez
– mbokila : call, invitation / size, greatness, something important
– mbokina : topic of conversation, topic of palaver
– mboko : appeal, cry / fees, commission, indemnity, compensation
– mbokolo : loud cry, call, song / quarrel, quarrel
– mbokono : conversation, interview / call, cry, scream
– mbokula : garment facing, wide hem / cloth worn around the hips and which falls in folds
– mbokula : position of the one who bends the knees
– mbokuna : garment facing, turn-down collar / two-shot rifle
– mbola : tobacco debris, nicotine juice in a pipe / insecticidal powder for head lice
– mbole : manure, excrement, waste / countryside, field / country house, villa
– mbololo : burial enclosure for the chiefs, mausoleum
– mbolula : second harvest of safous
– mboma : rampart, fortified place
– mboma : soldier / support beam, main girder / boa, python
– mbombo : protruding part of something, ridge, stern, frontispiece / nose, nostrils
– mbombo : consolation gift, present of reconciliation / greatness
– mbombo : herbs pulled out and spread on a field of peanuts / old quarrels
– mbombolo : crackling, crash / death, mourning
– mbomvo : laziness, vanity
– mbomvongo : height of a child
– mbona : view, glance, aspect, appearance
– mbonana : visit, interview
– mbonani : something transparent, glass
– mbondi : poultry manure / wild cat
– mbondingila : size, greatness, a big cock, a great rooster
– mbondo : elongated and conical shaped basket, elongated and narrow basket
– mbondo / nkunda : misfortune of a husband whose wives die one after the other
– mbondolo : consolation
– mbongi : village square, public square, common square, home / taker
– mbongo : money, treasure, property, goods in general, wealth, fortune
– mbongo : fruit, harvest / seed(s), sperm / food, income, wheat
– mbongo : kinship, human race, posterity, race / dwarfs / raffia fabric / rust
– mbota : star / button / quality of being big and fat / weaving wand / pipe
– mbota : club, bludgeon, big stick
– mbote : salutation, greeting, good, well, interesting, appropriate
– mbu : sea, ocean / mosquito
– mbuabula : wink, instant, moment
– mbuabununu : meeting, gathering
– mbuadi : close friend, dear friend, brother-in-law / steamed, stew
– mbuaka : redness, reddish in color, ruddy in color, vermeille color
– mbuaki : red color
– mbuangana : dispersion
– mbuangi : madness, insanity, mental alienation / weaver / pyrite, coppery
– mbuansadila : instructions for use, procedure to follow
– mbudikila : fragility / species of creepers, species of liana
– mbueno : sight, vew, way of looking, point of view
– mbuetete : star
– mbuitama : darkening
– mbuitami : that which makes dark
– mbuka : sleeping place, resting place / bed, bunk, couchette / region, area, place, spot
– mbuki : doctor, healer / kind of rifle
– mbuku : place / remedy, cure
– mbukuila : retail sale
– mbukuka : action of bursting, action of jumping
– mbukulu : healing, cure
– mbulamatadi : government
– mbulu : felled palm tree, sap from a felled palm
– mbuluku : valley between two mountains / rough path / meal, meal time / donkey
– mbulukulu : brittleness, fragility
– mbululuka : digestion, result of digestion
– mbulu-mbulu : soldier, military / species of small fly
– mbumasani : visit
– mbumba : secret / invention, creation, imagined thing / chopsticks constituting a rat trap / bark
– mbumba / mbumbi / kabumba : creator
– mbumbi : potter/ the one who catches
– mbumbu : mould, mouldy rust
– mbumbulu : very big person, very fat person / big gap, big void, big emptiness / soldier
– mbumbunzi : greatness of something, size of something
– mbumi / mbumini : visit / host / size, width
– mbumina : visitor, the one who goes to see
– mbumukisa : what is fragile / slate
– mbumvu / mbumvungu : size of a person, height of a person
– mbumvu : egg yolk
– mbunda : tam-tam, drum
– mbundakanna : addition, meeting
– mbundangi : which is very large, who is very tall
– mbundu : heart, heart of hearts, deep (down) inside, stone, entrails
– mbundu : potion from the bark of a tree used to detect the lie
– mbunga : respect, good manners / mass of soil
– mbungi : fog, thick mist, unclear view, cloudy view, semi-darkness, twilight / mould
– mbungi : destroyer, devil, the evil one / rifle barrel, rifle mouth / nostrils, nose
– mbungizi / mbunguzi / mbunzi : fog, mist
– mbungulu : destruction, corruption, annihilation
– mbungululu : dawn, daybreak
– mbunza : ambassador
– mbuta (bambuta) : big brother, elder, male person older than oneself
– mbuta : person older than oneself
– mbuta : courtesy title given to a male person, title of politeness given to a male person
– mbuta (bambuta) : courtesy title given to a male person
– mbuta-muntu : elderly person
– mbutu : fruit, seed, pod, result
– mbutuku : birth
– mbutukulu : way of being born, birth process, childbirth manière de naître
– mbutuluka : emergence, rebirth
– mbuwula : ancestor
– menga : blood, genetic character
– meno : cutting edge / teeth
– metele : meter, master
– meya : sou, cent
– mfiefele / mfiefiele : smallness / small chicken
– mfiela : immersion, species of tree, variety of banana trees
– mfielani : pile of stones marking the scene of a crime, cursed square
– mfieto : pressure
– mfietokoso : printing, pressing
– mfika : the softness, softness of a seat, softness of a layer, elasticity of a spring
– mfiku : food, source of strength and life, essential material / cardinal point
– mfiku : sorrow, torment, worry / acidity, bitterness, blandness
– mfinakani / mfinangani : one’s neighbour, near, closeness / narrowness, confinement of space
– mfinda : forest, wood, jungle
– mfingu / mfingulu : insult
– mfingutunu : support, cushion used as support
– mfini : the one who presses on, the one who squeezes, constrictor
– mfini / mfinia : very close neighborhood, close proximity, space confinement / apnea
– mfinu / mfinunu : strangulation, suffocation, choking, nightmare of suffocation
– mfiona : slander
– mfitika / mfuta : hem
– mfitu : payment, salary, fees
– mfoko : conclusion of a letter, conclusion of a conversation or discussion, end point
– mfokula : explanation / multiplication
– mfonia : tinplate, tinplate box
– mfuadi : drizzle / old and dark cassava
– mfuafa : narrow path through the grass / key
– mfualansa (bafualansa) : a Frenchman
– mfuamatu : deaf
– mfuanakani / mfuanana / mfuanani : resemblance, uniformity, analogy
– mfuandi : researcher, investigator, explorer
– mfuanga : mortality / bad luck, bad fate
– mfuani : suitable person, honest person / righteousness, dignity / what is appropriate
– mfuanikisa : matching, result of making resemble, adjustment / assimilation, comparison
– mfuanikisu : comparison
– mfuanka : chief’s buffalo tail, chief’s sword, royal sword / who doesn’t want to reprimand
– mfuansa : action of damaging or deforming while trying to do something
– mfuansi : thing, object, trick, something that is not named / luggage, package
– mfuba : ploughed field, field with cut herbs / cassava flour for sale / old thing
– mfuba : something that resists fire, something that prevents the burn and is used by the fetishist
– mfuba : something brown / a kind of brown banana
– mfudi : cotton plant / behaviour
– mfudulu : plowing, ploughing / plow, plough / explanation
– mfuebo : depression, collapse, thinning / pneumonia
– mfueka / mfueka-mfueka : sob
– mfuele : what is fine as powder or dust
– mfuele / mfuelembe : zeal
– mfuelele : perseverance at work
– mfuelemi : nurse
– mfuembo : joke, farce
– mfuenta : lazy, idle
– mfuilu : loss of life, death
– mfuilu : death
– mfuilulu : the death suffered
– mfuka : debt
– mfukamu : variety of trees
– mfuku : very strong odour, bad odour / smell, scent, perfume / utility, advantage, profit, interest
– mfuku : fog, drizzle, dew
– mfukululu : smut, blight, black rust, anthrax
– mfukusu : disappearance, extermination, elimination, loss
– mfula : powder / end, completion / violence, injustice / pronunciation / kind of fabric
– mfula : firstborn / blacksmith, metal worker / rigorous investigation, interrogation
– mfula-kazi : Chamber of Deputies, Parliament, deputy, member of Parliament
– mfula-mpemba : chamber of senators, senate
– mfulu : meeting, assembly, council / lodging, bed
– mfuma : nest, fold / consultative assembly / menstruation, menses, periods / faux-cotton tree
– mfuma :
– mfumba : hoop from a barrel used as a rolling toy by children
– mfumfu / mfumfuta : dust, powder, flour, fine salt
– mfumfu : dust
– mfumu : chief, boss, authority, property prefix
– mfumu-lupangu : landlord, lessor, owner of the parcel
– mfumu-ntoto : landowner, customary chief, indigenous, native
– mfuna : hunger, exhaustion / load, burden / species of antelope
– mfunda : fallow field / fern
– mfundasani : mutual accusations
– mfundi : accuser, complainant
– mfundulu : accusation, complaint, accusation procedure
– mfundusu : trial
– mfungulu : confession
– mfunguna : confession / preparation for communion, confession by ear
– mfungunu : confession, cleaning, purification
– mfungusi : confessor
– mfunka : strength, power, energy, moral power / big bushy tail / leopard
– mfuntulula : work that does not progress
– mfunu : value, importance, utility, necessity, need
– mfunzu : neglect, negligence, dishonour, sacrilege
– mfunzuki : excrement, filth, manure
– mfuonguni : person who snores
– mfuota / mfuotila : animal trail, path leading to the fields
– mfuoto : din, loud noise caused by an animal
– mfuta : bush / state of the previous day’s food that has been poorly preserved
– mfuta / mfutu : payment, salary, reward, gift
– mfuta : bush / condition of the one who has not yet done his morning toilet
– mfuti : payer, tenant
– mfutila : renting
– mfuti-nzo : tenant, lessee, leaseholder, lodger, roomer
– mfutu : financial value, payment, remuneration
– mfututu : freshness, coldness, mist, overcast sky, cloudy sky / dust
– mfuzi : dark
– miaka (muaka) : itching, urtication, stinging hairs
– miaka (muaka) : itching
– miangala (muangala) : suffering, persistent pain, itching
– miangu : confrontation, fight, conflict, aggressiveness, bellicose attitude
– midi : midday, noon, twelve o’clock
– mihia : bad luck
– mihimpi : astral dimension
– miliale : billion
– milioni : million
– mina (muina) : prohibitions, rules, regulations, laws
– miningi : music
– minkiela : sunrise, daybreak, dawn
– minu : faith, trust, confidence
– minuti : minute
– miolo / miolo-miolo : health, peace, happiness
– mioya : corn barbs, female corn flowers / mustache
– misu : blessing, power, chance to kill animals / a coin / eyes
– mitingi : meeting, gathering
– miziki : music
– mmanga : kind of game / snake venom / mango tree
– mmiamunu : brillance, way to shine
– mmolo : lazy person, lazybones
– mmongo : mountain, mount, slope
– mmuenge : heart of a tree trunk / marrow of a bone
– modele : model
– mona : novelty attribute
– moniere : a kind of beret
– monimambu : visionary, clairvoyant
– mono-kutuba : simplified Kikongo language used in the colonial administration
– mosi : one
– motele : motor, engine
– motifi : grievance, something to blame
– moto : motorcycle
– moyo : life / belly / soul, mind / senses, heart / sauce
– moyo : belly, soul, life
– mpa : novelty attribute
– mpaka : doubt, dispute, protest / cowshed, place where animals live, animal reserve
– mpakani : corner / arm
– mpaki : food, ration / payment by food to the healer / sleep, syncope
– mpakila : small shot / species of light corn
– mpaku : tax, licence, royalty
– mpalata : medal, decoration
– mpamba : free, nothing, nil, vain
– mpamba-mpamba : easily, unnecessarily, for free, without compensation
– mpambani : division, separation
– mpambu : junction, crossroads, separation
– mpami : big man, strong man, vigorous man / strength, vigour
– mpampu : haste, ardour, activity
– mpamu : strength, vigor, effort, energy, hardness, solidity, constancy
– mpandu : sacred knowledge, mystique / spell, fetishist trick
– mpandulua : stick, support, forked stake
– mpanga : verb, action
– mpangi : human brother, fellow human being, brother or sister, cousin
– mpangila : adverb
– mpangu : prohibition from the witch doctor relating to food / misfortune, accident
– mpangudi : fragment of something / section, compartment, division, pigeonhole, box
– mpangula : product redone again, renewal
– mpangulu / mpangua : manufactured product, creation / grammatical form
– mpanzi : side
– mpanzu (mapanzu) : quarrel, argument
– mpanzu : gateway to a school of initiation to the knowledge of fetishes
– mpata : coin worth five times the former Kongo currency unit / mould
– mpatu : agriculture, field, plantation
– mpavala / mpafala : empty space, emptiness, desert, solitude, loneliness, destitution
– mpayikulu : exit, liberation
– mpedoso : absolution, purification
– mpelele : whiteness / species of fish
– mpelo (bampelo) : priest, parish priest
– mpemba : chalk, white clay, kaolin / place reserved for graves, cemetery
– mpemba-nkazi : senator, high priest
– mpembe : white, whiteness
– mpembeni : proximity, close, next door
– mpembo : joke / species of small peanut / kind of wild potato
– mpemuna : fresh wind, cold wind
– mpena : kindness, goodness
– mpene : empty, emptiness, vacuum, nothingness, void
– mpengani : proximity, nearby
– mpengi : out of sight, hiding place, shadow
– mpesese : wide path
– mpesi : oath
– mpeso / mpesua : dirt, mud, grease on a surface / rubbish, waste, debris
– mpeso : stain, dirt, filth, waste / yellowish earth, chalk
– mpete : braid, stripe, band
– mpeve : spirit, soul, trance under the influence of a spirit
– mpeve / mpiepi : wind
– mpeve / mpevi : barrel of a rifle or a crossbow
– mpewo : shade, sun shelter, parasol, sunshade, beach umbrella
– mpeza : insult, abuse, contempt, threat
– mpezomo / mpezimo : flash of lightning / jolt, start, jump
– mpia : not, nothingness
– mpiaka : lie, talk in the air, empty words, empty speeches / bad luck, misfotune
– mpiaka : lack, shortage, defeat, lack of results
– mpiala : pretentious speech
– mpiandu : education, knowledge
– mpiangu : wisdom, intelligence / cunning, finesse, deceiver / swallow
– mpiaya / mpila / mpilu : bushfire, fire
– mpiaya / mpiaza : bush fire, forest fire, wildfire
– mpidi : viper / wicker basket carried on the back with a rope that surrounds the head
– mpiema : grave, cemetery
– mpikiti : size, greatness
– mpila : kind, type
– mpilakanua / mpilakeno : forgetfulness, error, mistake, fault
– mpilitini : printing house, printing press
– mpilua : mistake, error, misunderstanding
– mpimbisi / mpimisi (mampimbisi / mampimisi) : darkness, night
– mpimpa : darkness, night
– mpimpikiti / mumpimpikiti : size, greatness
– mpimpila / lumpimpila : dusk, twilight, darkness
– mpimpindi : size, greatness / large muscle / arm, leg
– mpimpisi (mampimpisi) : darkness, evening
– mpimpita / mpimpisi : dark night, darkness, evening
– mpimpita : dark night, total darkness
– mpimpiti : size, greatness / health, good health
– mpimpiti : health, life force
– mpinanza : planet
– mpinda : bottom, depth(s), foundation, base / peanut
– mpindu : quantity, crowd, troop, multitude
– mpini : torrent, strong current, difficult to pass
– mpinti : painter
– mpintu : beauty, prettiness
– mpioka : passage, way, crossing
– mpiokolo : passing, crossing
– mpiololo : whistle
– mpisa : messenger, envoy, ambassador, representative
– mpisi : attribute of wild
– mpisulu : understanding, knowledge
– mpitakani : target failure, missed target, complication, failure
– mpitakani : complication
– mpiti : darkness, dark
– mpivi : vigour, life, health, without infirmity / tail feathers
– mpivi : axe / orphan / singleton, the only one of its kind
