How to Use Yoruba in a Sentence

Yoruba

noun
  • Being half-Yoruba, half-Edo gives me a wide lens through which to view heritage.
    — Ugonnaora Owoh, Essence, 5 Aug. 2025
  • The Yoruba believe twins share a soul; if one twin dies, the other is in deadly peril.
    — Aatish Taseer, New York Times, 2024-02-12
  • And of course, the Yoruba people in Ifá speak about our heavenly mates.
    — Allison Noelle Conner, Los Angeles Times, 2024-10-14
  • Alára means ‘wondrous performer, one who trills endlessly’ in Yoruba.
    — Helen Jennings, Vogue, 2023-06-21
  • Polyrhythmic drums keep the connection to the earth while their lyrics rise up in praise of the orishas, the deities of the Yoruba pantheon.
    — Helena Alonso Paisley, Miami Herald, 2024-01-29
  • The Nigerian singer on her favorite Yoruba dish, late-night jazz club, and beaches around Lagos.
    — Megan Spurrell, Condé Nast Traveler, 2023-06-13
  • Veronica is of Igbo heritage, while Charles is from the Yoruba people.
    — Drake Bentley, Journal Sentinel, 2024-01-17
  • The captain burned the ship and sank it in a bayou; the captives, nearly all Yoruba speakers from the same village, toiled on plantations for the next five years.
    — Julian Lucas, The New Yorker, 2025-02-24
  • Jab Jab players use the goat-skin dùndún drum of Nigerian, Yoruba lineage and the Malian djembe drum.
    — Mankaprr Conteh, Rolling Stone, 23 Aug. 2025
  • The actor and will also serve as a producer on the series through his Yoruba Saxon Productions.
    — Lauren Hubbard, Town & Country, 2023-06-07
  • The two other candidate names for the newborn were Lola, which is Yoruba for greatness, and Mkali, Swahili for fierce, the zoo said.
    — Martin Weil, Washington Post, 2023-06-11
  • Or such a system might prove popular among English speakers but not be available in Yoruba, one of Nigeria’s main native languages.
    — Daniel Björkegren, Foreign Affairs, 2023-08-09
  • Through Yoruba Media Labs, Eltawashy aims to help new companies craft meaningful content, build a brand, and tell that brand’s story.
    — Nick Kasmik, USA TODAY, 2024-06-25
  • It’s found in 88 percent of European Finns, but only 5 percent of African Yoruba.
    — Bridget Alex, Discover Magazine, 2019-06-03
  • This time, the focus turns to African mythology and religion, spotlighting Oya, the Yoruba Orisha of wind and storms.
    — Anita Kopacz, People.com, 2024-12-09
  • The documentary aims to position Yoruba music not just as a regional phenomenon but as a pivotal force in the evolution of global music.
    — Jem Aswad, Variety, 2025-02-13
  • Osun is a fertility goddess of the Yoruba people, and in this eerie but beautiful sanctuary stand statues of several gods, or orishas, chief among them Ogun.
    — John Ganz, Harper's Magazine, 2024-05-22
  • While a fictional, fantasy story, Adeyemi clearly draws on Yoruba culture and West African mythology to shape her world.
    — Susan Akyeampong, refinery29.com, 2025-02-13
  • Set in a rural Yoruba village in Nigeria, the film follows 11-year-old Musa, a boy with palilalia who dreams of becoming a cardiologist.
    — Matthew Carey, Deadline, 2025-05-22
  • Boyega, who was born to British Nigerian parents, accessorized the red carpet look with a traditional Yoruba woven cap called a Fila and black dress shoes.
    — Marisa Sullivan, Peoplemag, 2023-06-15
  • In addition to starring, Oyelowo executive produces under his Yoruba Saxon banner.
    — Demicia Inman, VIBE.com, 2025-04-17
  • The play’s cast of characters, who also serve as narrators and commentators, are drawn from the pantheon of Greek mythology and the deities of Yoruba spirituality.
    — Don Aucoin, BostonGlobe.com, 2023-09-13
  • The Yoruba people believe that the Osun-Osogbo grove, which sprawls across 185 acres of dense forest, is the goddess Osun’s earthly home.
    — Ogar Monday, Christian Science Monitor, 2025-05-08
  • The duo fused Afrobeat, pop, psychedelic rock, reggae, disco and jazz music with messages about gender equality, government corruption, love and more in both English and Yoruba.
    — Heran Mamo, Billboard, 2024-07-10
  • The play becomes a delta itself, where tributary identities—Muslim, Yoruba, traditional, modern—mingle and, when the priest’s hypocrisy is exposed, surge toward confrontation.
    — Helen Shaw, New Yorker, 2025-04-11
  • The piece includes sounds of water, wind, deep vibrating sine tones, electronic drones, whispers of Yoruba prayer and Buford’s own humming and singing within the electronics; the violin blends with and enhances its atmosphere.
    — Jane Levere, Forbes, 2025-03-08
  • In 2020 Black filmmaker Yoruba Richens and the New York Times premiered The Killing of Breonna Taylor, a moving film that centers on the no-knock police raid that led to the twenty-six-year-old emergency medical technician’s death.
    — Lashawn Harris august 27, Literary Hub, 27 Aug. 2025

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

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