marae
/məˈɹaɪ/
marae noun: the courtyard of a Maori wharenui or meeting-house, seen as a cultural and spiritual focal point.
Noun
marae (plural maraes)
- The courtyard of a Maori wharenui or meeting-house, seen as a cultural and spiritual focal point.
- The buildings and people around it; a spiritual or cultural centre.
- A Polynesian sacred altar or enclosure.
- The path ended down by the sea at a crumbling ‘ingot’ of black coral, twenty yards in length & in height two men. ‘A marae, this is called,’ Mr Wagstaff informed me. ‘All over the South Seas you see ’em, I’m told.’2004, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, London: Sceptre (Hodder and Stoughton), →ISBN
Forms of marae
| plural | maraes |
|---|---|
| alternative form | marai |
| alternative form | morai |
Origin of marae
Borrowed from Māori marae and Tahitian marae, from Proto-Oceanic *malaqe.
Words that rhyme with marae
Questions about marae
- What does marae mean?
- Marae means the courtyard of a Maori wharenui or meeting-house, seen as a cultural and spiritual focal point.
- What part of speech is marae?
- Marae is a noun.
- How do you pronounce marae?
- Marae is pronounced /məˈɹaɪ/.
- What is the plural of marae?
- The plural of marae is maraes.
Words near marae in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: marae (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: “marae.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/marae. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.