Word.ws English Dictionary

heiau

UK/ˈheɪaʊ/

heiau noun: a temple in traditional Hawaiian society.

heiau: a temple in traditional Hawaiian society
Image: Edward Byrdy, Khanh Dao, Dana Lockett, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

heiau (plural heiaus or heiau)

  1. (Hawaii) A temple in traditional Hawaiian society.
    • The basalt was also piled to outline large squares in the ceremonial centres known as heiaus.2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society, published 2011, page 52
    • They'd order lawbreakers put to death in fearsome ritualized killings that took place in a heiau, accompanied by beating drums and chants.2012, Julia Flynn Siler, Lost Kingdom, Grove Press 2012, page xix

Forms of heiau

pluralheiaus
pluralheiau

Origin of heiau

From Hawaiian heiau.

Questions about heiau

What does heiau mean?
Heiau means a temple in traditional Hawaiian society.
What part of speech is heiau?
Heiau is a noun.
How do you pronounce heiau?
Heiau is pronounced /ˈheɪaʊ/ (UK).
What is the plural of heiau?
The plural of heiau is heiaus.

Words near heiau in the dictionary

  1. Hei-ho
  2. Hei-lung-chiang
  3. hei-tiki
  4. hei-tikis
  5. Heian
  6. heiau
  7. heiaus
  8. Heiban
  9. Heibel
  10. Heibels
  11. Heiberg Islands

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: heiau (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.

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