Word.ws English Dictionary

proa

/ˈpɹəʊ.ə/US/ˈpɹoʊ.ə/

proa noun: a sailing vessel found in the waters of Micronesia and Indonesia; it has a single, large outrigger and a triangular sail.

Noun

proa (plural proas)

  1. A sailing vessel found in the waters of Micronesia and Indonesia; it has a single, large outrigger and a triangular sail.
    • I noticed that on the sea were numerous fantastically shaped canoes—or rather boats—like Malay proas, or the canoes used by many of the South Sea islanders.1894, Ivan Dexter, Talmud: A Strange Narrative of Central Australia, published in serial form in Port Adelaide News and Lefevre's Peninsula Advertiser (SA), Chapter XXII...
    • Malay ‘prahu’ or proa were said to be more than a match for British vessels.2020, Sujit Sivasundaram, Waves Across the South, William Collins, published 2021, page 231

Proper noun capitalized: Proa

Proa (plural Proas)

  1. A surname.

proa meaning in Malay

proa in Malay

sailing vessel
perahu

Forms of proa

Noun
pluralproas
alternative formparao
alternative formperahu
alternative formprahu
alternative formprau
alternative formprow
Proper noun
pluralProas

Origin of proa

From Malay perau, a variant of perahu. In some forms via Portuguese parão or Dutch prauw; in some forms assimilated to prow.

Borrowed from Galician Proa and Portuguese Prôa; this surname is predominantly found in Mexico.

Words that rhyme with proa

Questions about proa

What does proa mean?
Proa means a sailing vessel found in the waters of Micronesia and Indonesia; it has a single, large outrigger and a triangular sail.
What is proa in Malay?
Proa in Malay is perahu. See Proa meaning in Malay.
What part of speech is proa?
Proa can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce proa?
Proa is pronounced /ˈpɹəʊ.ə/ (UK).
What is the plural of proa?
The plural of proa is proas.

Words near proa in the dictionary

  1. pro-zionism
  2. pro-Zionist
  3. pro-Zionistic
  4. pro-Zionists
  5. Pro.
  6. proa
  7. proabolition
  8. proabolitionist
  9. proabolitionists
  10. proabort
  11. proabortion

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: proa (page history and authors); Proa (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-proa.wav.

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