sengi
1 synonym for sengi, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.
Noun — A small, insect-eating, long-nosed mammal native to Africa, belonging to the family Macroscelididae.
Synonyms
Rare, literary or technical
Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.
elephant shrew
How to use sengi
The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.
a species of sengi
the sengi's long nose
native sengi populations
It is a specialist, zoological term, more likely to appear in scientific or nature writing than everyday speech.
Etymology
Sengi was borrowed into English from Swahili, where it likely came from another Bantu language, such as the Giryama word sanje.
Full origin of sengi →Frequently asked questions
What is a sengi?
A sengi is a small, long-nosed African mammal that eats insects and is also widely known as an elephant shrew.
Is a sengi the same as a shrew?
No, despite the older name elephant shrew, a sengi is not closely related to true shrews and has a very different evolutionary history.
Why do scientists prefer the name sengi over elephant shrew?
Some zoologists argue sengi is more accurate, since it uses a local African name rather than wrongly linking the animal to shrews.
