kastom

Syllables: ka·stomUK/ˈkɑːstɒm//ˈkɑstɑm/

kastom noun: traditional beliefs and values held, and culture practised, in modern times in Melanesia.

Noun

kastom (uncountable)

(Papua-New-Guinea, Solomon Islands, cultural anthropology) Traditional beliefs and values held, and culture practised, in modern times in Melanesia.
- Mats were used in kastom ceremonies, but they were not identified as kastom themselves. By coming to Ambae to promote, document, and revive weaving skills and mats, emphasizing that women have their own kastom and contribute to the kastom life of the community, we gave women a new perspective on...1994, Lissant Bolton, “‘Bifo Yumi Ting Se Samting Nating’: The Women’s Culture Project at the Vanuatu Cultural Centre”, in Lamont Lindstrom, Geoffrey M[iles] White, editors, Culture, Kastom...
- Men were adamant that I should not go near the tower [for the land-dive ritual] since my presence there, like the presence of any local woman, would threaten the strength of the wood and lianas, would imperil the sacred integrity of the ancestor embodied in the tower, and endanger the lives of...1994, Margaret Jolly, “Prologue: An Arrival Story”, in Women of the Place: Kastom, Colonialism, and Gender in Vanuatu (Studies in Anthropology and History; 12), Chur, Grisons, Switzerland: Harwood...

Mats were used in kastom ceremonies, but they were not identified as kastom themselves.1994, Lissant Bolton, “‘Bifo Yumi Ting Se Samting Nating’: The Women’s Culture Project at the Vanuatu Cultural Centre”, in Lamont...
Since I knew kastom, spoke the language and was a 'woman of the place', I was in contrast a danger.1994, Margaret Jolly, “Prologue: An Arrival Story”, in Women of the Place: Kastom, Colonialism, and Gender in Vanuatu (Studies in...
At the same time many of these politicians established an intellectual rapprochement between kastom and Christianity.2000, David L. Hanlon, Geoffrey M[iles] White, Voyaging through the Contemporary Pacific (Pacific Formations), Lanham, Md.: Rowman &...
Kastom and Christianity are inherently dynamic world-views and, moreover, have come under considerable stress in recent times.2008, Jaap Timmer, “Kastom and Theocracy: A Reflection on Governance from the Uttermost Part of the World”, in Sinclair Dinnen, Stewart...

Borrowed from Bislama kastom, Pijin kastom or Tok Pisin kastom, both from English custom. Doublet of consuetude, costume, and custom.

What does kastom mean?: Kastom means traditional beliefs and values held, and culture practised, in modern times in Melanesia.
How do you use kastom in a sentence?: Mats were used in kastom ceremonies, but they were not identified as kastom themselves.
What part of speech is kastom?: Kastom is a noun.
How do you pronounce kastom?: Kastom is pronounced /ˈkɑːstɒm/ (UK).

Adapted from Wiktionary: kastom (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-kastom.wav.

Cite this entry: “kastom.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kastom. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.