ponga
UK/ˈpɒŋə/
ponga noun: a medium-sized tree fern endemic to New Zealand, of species Alsophila tricolor (syns .Alsophila dealbata, Cyathea dealbata et al.).
Noun
ponga (plural pongas)
- A medium-sized tree fern endemic to New Zealand, of species Alsophila tricolor (syns .Alsophila dealbata, Cyathea dealbata et al.).
- Hilltop behind hilltop, / A mile of green pungas / In the grey afternoon / Bow their heads to the slanting spears of rain.1972, James K. Baxter, ‘He Waiata mo Te Kare’, Selected Poems, Te Herenga Waka University Press 2023, p. 265
- Ponga logs tended to be used vertically for house walls on the mainland and horizontally (a style known as wakawaka) on the Chatham Islands.2003, Michael King, The Penguin History of Aotearoa New Zealand, Penguin, published 2023, page 232
- Synonyms:
- silver fern
Synonyms of ponga
Forms of ponga
| plural | pongas |
|---|---|
| alternative form | punga |
Origin of ponga
Borrowed from Māori ponga.
Questions about ponga
- What does ponga mean?
- Ponga means a medium-sized tree fern endemic to New Zealand, of species Alsophila tricolor (syns .Alsophila dealbata, Cyathea dealbata et al.).
- What part of speech is ponga?
- Ponga is a noun.
- How do you pronounce ponga?
- Ponga is pronounced /ˈpɒŋə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of ponga?
- The plural of ponga is pongas.
Words near ponga in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ponga (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: “ponga.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ponga. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.