Word.ws English Dictionary

Kanaka Maoli

[ˈkɑːnəkə ˈmɒlɪ]

Kanaka Maoli noun: native Hawaiians of Polynesian descent.

Noun

Kanaka Maoli (uncountable)

  1. Native Hawaiians of Polynesian descent.
    • Many contemporary Hawaiians reject both the English name and concept to assert instead that Kanaka Maoli should be identified as a people with a particular relationship to specific places and people.1999, Houston Wood, Displacing Natives: The Rhetorical Production of Hawaiʻi, →ISBN, page 13
    • Joseph Nawahi leaves an important legacy for following generations about the nature and purpose of Kanaka Maoli and indigenous art.2011, Jonathan Harris, Globalization and Contemporary Art, →ISBN

Origin of Kanaka Maoli

Borrowed from Hawaiian Kānaka Maoli; from kānaka "people" maoli "indigenous".

Questions about Kanaka Maoli

What does Kanaka Maoli mean?
Kanaka Maoli means native Hawaiians of Polynesian descent.
What part of speech is Kanaka Maoli?
Kanaka Maoli is a noun.
How do you pronounce Kanaka Maoli?
Kanaka Maoli is pronounced [ˈkɑːnəkə ˈmɒlɪ].

Words near Kanaka Maoli in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Kanaka Maoli (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: “Kanaka Maoli.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kanaka_maoli. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.