niger
/ˈnaɪ.d͡ʒɚ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.45 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
A country in West Africa, situated to the north of Nigeria. Official name: Republic of the Niger.
name
A state of Nigeria in the North Central geopolitical zone. Capital and largest city: Minna.
Example Sentences
- "An American aid worker who was kidnapped in Niger more than six years ago and held hostage by terrorists has been released, President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan tweeted on Monday."
- "From here we can see the River Niger in the distance running across town, a long gleaming diamond in the horizon."
- "Gunshots rang out in the capital Abuja and also in the neighboring Niger state as police lobbed tear gas to disperse defiant protesters. In Niger, at least six people are now feared dead, local media reported."
Etymology
Etymology tree Tuareg n'igherren? ▲ Latin nigerinflu. French Nigerbor. English Niger Borrowed from French Niger. For further etymology, commonly linked by folk etymology to Latin niger (“black”), which likely influenced the modern spelling. Some sources give the term to Tuareg roots, deriving it from a claimed gher n-gheren or egereou n-igereouen (“river of rivers”). Compare Tarifit iɣzar-n-iɣezran. Older sources derive Niger, via a series of mistranslations and geographic misplacements by Greek, Roman and Arab geographers, from Ptolemy's descriptions of the wadi Gir (in modern Algeria) and the "Lower Gir" (or "Ni-Gir") to the south.
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
- Root: -, Nigris
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈnaɪ.d͡ʒɚ/
- British English: /ˈnaɪ.d͡ʒə(ɹ)/
Usage
Inflected Forms
the Niger (canonical)
Derived Forms
Nigersaurus
Nigger