poi
/ˌpiː ˌəʊ ˈaɪ//pɔɪ/
poi noun: the traditional staple food of Hawaii, made by baking and pounding the kalo (or taro) root, and reducing it to a thin paste, which is allowed to ferment. Also the alternative form of poee.
Noun (1)
poi (uncountable)
- The traditional staple food of Hawaii, made by baking and pounding the kalo (or taro) root, and reducing it to a thin paste, which is allowed to ferment.
- It was a far cry from the traditional Hawaiian feast, which always included the beloved poi, a purplish paste made from pounded taro root […].2012, Julia Flynn Siler, Lost Kingdom, Grove Press, page 104
- A creamy Samoan dessert of ripe bananas mashed with coconut cream.
Noun (2)
poi (countable and uncountable, plural poi or pois)
- A small ball made of leaves and fibres, attached to a string.
- Warriors formerly used poi actions to maintain wrist flexibility, but poi have developed as a women's dance. Classic poi dances and songs are reputed to have been those of the people of the Taranaki, Rotorua, and Whanganui tribal areas, but poi are now performed everywhere in Aotearoa.2008, Ellen Koskoff, “Haka poi”, in The Concise Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Routledge, →ISBN, page 738
- A couple of days later Trico announced that, if I were to travel with them, it was imperative that I learn some form of malabares, or circus skill. The available options were poi, staff or juggling. ‘Poi’, the form of malabares that Sandra played, are two balls at the end of chains which are spun...2013, Catriona Rainsford, The Urban Circus: Travels with Mexico's Malabaristas, Bradt Travel Guides, →ISBN, page 18
- A traditional dance performed by Maori women involving the rhythmic swinging of such a ball.
Noun (3) capitalized: POI
POI (plural POIs)
- Initialism of point of interest.
- These POIs are usually visualized as icons (e.g., push pins, markers in Google Maps) in a base map, with some multimedia information—mostly text, images, and videos—attached to the icons (Haklay et al., 2008).2012, Michael P. Peterson, editor, Online Maps with APIs and WebServices, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 159
- Initialism of person of interest.
- Initialism of point of impact.
Also used as
poi is also the alternative form of poee.
Forms of poi
| plural | poi |
|---|---|
| plural | pois |
| plural | POIs |
Origin of poi
Borrowed from Hawaiian poi.
Borrowed from Māori poi.
Words that rhyme with poi
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- JOI
- joy
- alloy
- Amoy
- cloy
- convoy
- deploy
- goy
- oi
- overjoy
- ploy
- travois
- ahoy
- annoy
- catboy
- Choi
- foxboy
- foy
- Hanoi
- hoi polloi
- kathoey
- Saint Croix
- soy
- Sukhoi
- accoy
- bok choy
- cocky's joy
- diaperboy
- doy
- Floy
- hoi
- hoo, boy
- hoy
- killjoy
- Kilroy
- koi
- loy
- man and boy
- noy
- oe
- oy
- pick-me boy
- ploye
- po' boy
- puppyboy
- Savoie
- stroy
- sugoi
Questions about poi
- What does poi mean?
- Poi means the traditional staple food of Hawaii, made by baking and pounding the kalo (or taro) root, and reducing it to a thin paste, which is allowed to ferment.
- What part of speech is poi?
- Poi is a noun.
- How do you pronounce poi?
- Poi is pronounced /pɔɪ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of poi?
- The plural of poi is poi.
Words near poi in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: poi (page history and authors); POI (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-poi.wav.
Cite this entry: “poi.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/poi. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.