Word.ws English Dictionary

motu

motu noun: a reef islet formed by broken coral and sand, surrounding an atoll.

Noun (1)

motu (plural motus)

  1. A reef islet formed by broken coral and sand, surrounding an atoll.

Noun (2)

motu (uncountable)

  1. (New Zealand) Country, nation, particularly New Zealand.
    • The peanut-shaped roundabout while unusual, is not the only one in New Zealand, with a few others scattered around the motu.2026 May 20, Rawan Saadi, Radio New Zealand

Proper noun capitalized: Motu

Motu

  1. An Oceanic language of Papua New Guinea.

Forms of motu

pluralmotus

Origin of motu

From a descendant of Proto-Polynesian *motu.

From Māori motu “land; country, nation” descendant of Proto-Polynesian *motu as above

Phrases with motu

Questions about motu

What does motu mean?
Motu means a reef islet formed by broken coral and sand, surrounding an atoll.
What part of speech is motu?
Motu can be a noun or a proper noun.
What is the plural of motu?
The plural of motu is motus.

Words near motu in the dictionary

  1. Mottram in Longdendale
  2. mottramite
  3. Mottrams
  4. motts
  5. motty
  6. motu
  7. motu proprio
  8. motu proprios
  9. Motuan
  10. motuca
  11. motucas

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: motu (page history and authors); Motu (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: “motu.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/motu. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.