Meanings
- AustraliaCentralderogatoryA tourist, especially one that comes to climb Uluru.
It's easy to see why local Aborigines refer to these intruders as minga—or little ants.
2008, Frommer's Australia3 more examples
To have Uluru interpreted by an Anangu guide is far more fulfilling than trailing after the minga, or "ants", as those who show their disrespect by climbing the sacred monolith are called.
2004, Australia, →ISBN, page 10I, too, have come to central Australia as a minga tjuta, though I'm not here to scale the slopes of Uluru.
2009, Rolf Potts, Marco Polo Didn't Go There: Stories and Revelations from One Decade as a Postmodern Travel Writer, →ISBN, page 127At the end of her patrol yesterday arvo, Ruby went into the crater and found a group of minga off track.
2018, Holly Ringland, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart
Origin
- Pitjantjatjaraminga tjuta“ants”
- Englishminga
From Pitjantjatjara minga tjuta (“ants”). Compare emmet.
More words from Pitjantjatjara
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
minga. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/minga
“minga.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/minga. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “minga,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/minga.
Source: minga on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.