banaba
/bəˈnɑːbə/
banaba noun: a Southeast Asian tree (Lagerstroemia speciosa), with medicinal leaves.
Noun
banaba (plural banabas)
- A Southeast Asian tree (Lagerstroemia speciosa), with medicinal leaves.
- Synonyms:
- giant crape-myrtle, Queen's crape-myrtle, pride of India
Proper noun capitalized: Banaba
Banaba
- An island of Kiribati in the Pacific Ocean, a former site of phosphate mining.
- The last decent rain on Banaba was more than a year ago. […] Alofa says elders would like to see Australia and New Zealand fund a team of researchers to travel to Banaba to assess the damage and repair the caves.2021 June 8, Joshua Mcdonald, “The island with no water: how foreign mining destroyed Banaba”, in The Guardian
- Synonyms:
- Ocean Island
Synonyms of banaba
- giant crape-myrtle
- Queen's crape-myrtle
- pride of India
- Ocean Island
Forms of banaba
| plural | banabas |
|---|
Origin of banaba
Ultimately from Proto-Philippine *banabá. Compare Tagalog banabá, Cebuano banaba, Kapampangan [Term?].
Borrowed from Gilbertese [Term?].
Words formed from banaba
Questions about banaba
- What does banaba mean?
- Banaba means a Southeast Asian tree (Lagerstroemia speciosa), with medicinal leaves.
- What part of speech is banaba?
- Banaba can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce banaba?
- Banaba is pronounced /bəˈnɑːbə/.
- What is the plural of banaba?
- The plural of banaba is banabas.
Words near banaba in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: banaba (page history and authors); Banaba (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “banaba.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/banaba. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.