Mandela

M3A1N1D2E1L1A1
/mænˈdɛlə/

proper noun

A surname from Xhosa, notably borne by Nelson Mandela.

Less commonScrabble 10

Meanings

proper noun
  1. A surname from Xhosa, notably borne by Nelson Mandela.

    Our common room, thanks to a morally rectitudinous constitutional change some time previously, was known as the Nelson Mandela Room.

    2008 December 30, Libby Brooks, “Let heroes be unsung”, in The Guardian
    1 more example

    This scenario would hark back to the post-apartheid era when South Africa operated under a GNU to oversee the new constitution, led by Mandela as president and FW de Klerk and Thabo Mbeki as deputy presidents, between April 1994 and February 1997.

    2024 May 30, Sarah Dean and David McKenzie, “First results in South Africa’s election suggest it is heading for biggest political shift since apartheid”, in CNN
verbMandela (third-person singular simple present Mandelas, present participle Mandelaing, simple past and past participle Mandelaed)

present singular third person Mandelas · participle present Mandelaing · participle past Mandelaed · past Mandelaed

  1. To experience the Mandela effect.

Origin

  1. XhosaMandela
  2. EnglishMandela

Borrowed from Xhosa Mandela.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Afrikaans Mandela
  • Mandelasurname
Arabic مَانْدِيلَا
  • مَانْدِيلَا (mandēlā)surname
Bengali ম্যান্ডেলা
  • ম্যান্ডেলা (mênḍela)surname
Bulgarian Манде́ла
  • Манде́ла (Mandéla)surname
Chinese Mandarin 曼德拉
  • 曼德拉 (Màndélā)surname
Dutch Mandela
  • Mandelasurname
German Mandela
  • Mandelasurname
Greek Μαντέλα
  • Μαντέλα (Mantéla)surname
Hebrew מנדלה
  • מנדלה (mandela)surname
Hindi मंडेला
  • मंडेला (maṇḍelā)surname
Japanese マンデラ
  • マンデラsurname
Korean 만델라
  • 만델라 (Mandella)surname
Persian ماندلا
  • ماندلا (mândelâ)surname
Portuguese Mandela
  • Mandelasurname
Russian Манде́ла
  • Манде́ла (Mandɛ́la)surname
Ukrainian Манде́ла
  • Манде́ла (Mandéla)surname
Urdu منڈیلا
  • منڈیلا (maṇḍelā)surname

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

Mandela. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Mandela

MLA

“Mandela.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Mandela. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Mandela,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Mandela.

Source: Mandela on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.