hongi
/ˈhɒŋi/
hongi noun: the Maori greeting of touching noses.
Noun
hongi (plural hongis)
- The Maori greeting of touching noses.
Verb
hongi (third-person singular simple present hongis, present participle hongiing, simple past and past participle hongied)
- To perform the Maori greeting of touching noses.
- [I]f I knew you better , or I was a warmer person, I would hongi, but…1983, Keri Hulme, The Bone People, Penguin, published 1986, page 88
Forms of hongi
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | hongis |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | hongis |
| present participle | hongiing |
| past participle | hongied |
| past | hongied |
Origin of hongi
Borrowed from Māori hongi.
Words that rhyme with hongi
Questions about hongi
- What does hongi mean?
- Hongi means the Maori greeting of touching noses.
- What part of speech is hongi?
- Hongi can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce hongi?
- Hongi is pronounced /ˈhɒŋi/.
- What is the plural of hongi?
- The plural of hongi is hongis.
Words near hongi in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hongi (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-hongi.wav.
Cite this entry: “hongi.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hongi. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.