Word.ws English Dictionary

Kanak

/kəˈnæk/

Kanak noun: an indigenous Melanesian inhabitant of New Caledonia.

Noun

Kanak (plural Kanaks or Kanak)

  1. An indigenous Melanesian inhabitant of New Caledonia.
    • In the working-class districts of Nouméa, which have a high population of indigenous Kanak residents, buildings were burned and wrecked vehicles remained in the middle of the road.2024 May 17, Julien Mazzoni, “New Caledonia riots: parts of territory ‘out of state control’, French representative says”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

Proper noun

Kanak

  1. A female given name from Sanskrit used in India.

Forms of Kanak

pluralKanaks
pluralKanak
alternative formCanaque

Origin of Kanak

First attested in 1910, borrowed from French canaque, from English kanaka (“Pacific islander”), from Hawaiian kanaka (“person”).

Borrowed from Sanskrit कनक (kanaka).

Questions about Kanak

What does Kanak mean?
Kanak means an indigenous Melanesian inhabitant of New Caledonia.
What part of speech is Kanak?
Kanak can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Kanak?
Kanak is pronounced /kəˈnæk/.
What is the plural of Kanak?
The plural of Kanak is Kanaks.

Words near Kanak in the dictionary

  1. Kanagy
  2. Kanagys
  3. Kanahooka
  4. kanaima
  5. kanaimas
  6. Kanak
  7. kanaka
  8. Kanaka Maoli
  9. Kanakanavu
  10. Kanakangi
  11. kanakas

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Kanak (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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Cite this entry: “Kanak.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kanak. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.