Word.ws English Dictionary

koa

/kəʊə/

koa noun: a large tree of species Acacia koa (family Fabaceae) which is endemic to and common on the islands of Hawaii; or the wood of this tree.

koa: a large tree of species Acacia koa (family Fabaceae) which is endemic to and common on the islands...
Image: Forest & Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

koa (plural koas or koa)

  1. A large tree of species Acacia koa (family Fabaceae) which is endemic to and common on the islands of Hawaii; or the wood of this tree.
    • As you get higher, native vegetation takes over, so a prospect might be framed by the dangling leaves of the beautiful koa tree, each leaf a gently curved, trembling sickle.2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society, published 2011, page 59
    • The outer frame is made of koa and maple.2007 March 18, Anne Eisenberg, “How to Soften the Edges of Technology”, in New York Times

Forms of koa

pluralkoas
pluralkoa

Origin of koa

Borrowed from Hawaiian koa. Doublet of toa.

Words formed from koa

Phrases with koa

Questions about koa

What does koa mean?
Koa means a large tree of species Acacia koa (family Fabaceae) which is endemic to and common on the islands of Hawaii; or the wood of this tree.
What part of speech is koa?
Koa is a noun.
How do you pronounce koa?
Koa is pronounced /kəʊə/ (UK).
What is the plural of koa?
The plural of koa is koas.

Words near koa in the dictionary

  1. Ko Samui
  2. KO'd
  3. KO'ing
  4. KO's
  5. Ko-chiu
  6. koa
  7. koa finch
  8. koa finches
  9. koa wilt
  10. koae
  11. koaita

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: koa (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-koa.wav.

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