Word.ws English Dictionary

kaumatua

UK/kaʊˈmɑːtʊə/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

New Zealand/kʌʉˈmʌːtʉə/

kaumatua noun: in Māori culture, an elder; a respected older person.

Noun

kaumatua (plural kaumatuas or kaumatua)

  1. (New Zealand) In Māori culture, an elder; a respected older person.
    • The kaumatua would have rubbed the finished ring against belly and nose to make that shine, for many months.1983, Keri Hulme, The Bone People, Penguin, published 1986, page 313

Forms of kaumatua

pluralkaumatuas
pluralkaumatua

Origin of kaumatua

Borrowed from Māori kaumātua (“adult, elder”).

Questions about kaumatua

What does kaumatua mean?
Kaumatua means in Māori culture, an elder; a respected older person.
What part of speech is kaumatua?
Kaumatua is a noun.
How do you pronounce kaumatua?
Kaumatua is pronounced /kʌʉˈmʌːtʉə/ (New Zealand).
What is the plural of kaumatua?
The plural of kaumatua is kaumatuas.

Words near kaumatua in the dictionary

  1. Kaul festival
  2. Kaul festivals
  3. kauluamine
  4. Kaumagraph
  5. Kaumagraphs
  6. kaumatua
  7. kaumatuas
  8. kaumographer
  9. kaumographers
  10. Kaumpurnah Zone I
  11. Kaumpurnah Zone II

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kaumatua (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:

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