Hutu

noun

Hu·​tu ˈhü-(ˌ)tü How to pronounce Hutu (audio)
plural Hutu or Hutus
: a member of a Bantu-speaking people of Rwanda and Burundi

Examples of Hutu in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The killers, for the most part, came from the Hutu majority — some were formally in the military, but many were part of paramilitary organizations called the interahamwe. Tinbete Ermyas, NPR, 13 May 2024 Permanent separation of Hutu and Tutsi seemed the only solution. Jonathan M. Hansen, TIME, 7 Apr. 2024 The rebels, led by Mr. Kagame, said the Hutu extremists downed the plane as a pretext for genocide. Abdi Latif Dahir, New York Times, 7 Apr. 2024 When the Hutu military begins enforcing ethnic cleansing against the Tutsi minority tribe, Paul, a Hutu himself, must shield his Tutsi wife and children. Rivea Ruff, Essence, 5 Apr. 2024 The Hutu were doing that about the Tutsi, the Nazis obviously were doing it about the Jews, and so forth. Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 16 Nov. 2023 For instance, in 1996, the Rwandan army invaded the Democratic Republic of the Congo to root out various Rwandan Hutu militias that had sought sanctuary in Congo after the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Foreign Affairs, 19 Apr. 2022 The Rwandan genocide saw Hutu militias and civilians alike murder vast numbers of members of the Tutsi ethnic minority: men, women and children, many of whom had been their neighbors before the conflict began. David McKenzie, CNN, 25 May 2023 Bands of Hutu extremists began slaughtering the Tutsi, with support from the army, police, and militias. Mike Corder, Star Tribune, 11 Nov. 2020

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'Hutu.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Kinyarwanda & Kirundi (Bantu languages of East Africa)

First Known Use

1952, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of Hutu was in 1952

Dictionary Entries Near Hutu

Cite this Entry

“Hutu.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Hutu. Accessed 7 Oct. 2024.

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