How to Say "Water" in Swahili

maji

/ˈmɑ.ʄi/plural

The Swahili word for water is maji.

maji is the most widely used and recognized term for the inorganic compound H₂O in Swahili.

Meaning: inorganic compound H₂O (noun)

How does it change in a sentence?

maji belongs to the JI-MA noun class, which is the class typically used for liquids and mass nouns.

The word is pronounced as /ˈmɑ.ʄi/. It has 2 syllables, and the stress is on the 1st syllable.

There is a common Swahili idiom maji ya kifuu which refers to a very small amount of water, literally describing water held in a coconut shell.
In coastal Swahili culture, offering someone maji is a fundamental gesture of hospitality that can be more important than offering food.
The word maji is inherited from the Proto-Bantu root *màjíjɪ̀, making it a cognate with water terms in hundreds of other Bantu languages across Africa.

Tia maji kwenye davai yako.
Put some water in your wine.
This sentence is useful for practicing how to use maji when talking about adding water to wine.
Tatoeba #10891567 by ecorralest101, translation #6964304 by CarpeLanam
Usinywe maji yaliyo bilaurini!
Do not drink the water in the dirty glass!
This sentence is useful for practicing how to use maji when talking about water in a glass.
Tatoeba #2489839 by Tempoacc, translation #2488393 by esperanturk
Napenda kunywa maji na barafu.
I like to drink ice water.
This sentence is useful for practicing how to use maji when expressing a preference for drinking water with ice.
Tatoeba #13483320 by ecorralest101, translation #9724037 by 6dDcHYgMAg
16 more sentences on Tatoeba

Juma and Fatuma are at a market.

Sources

Wiktionary, “water” translations and entries maji, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
Word origins: Wiktionary entries maji, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.

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