shaka
/ˈʃɑːkə/
shaka noun: a greeting gesture in which the thumb and little finger are extended while curling the three middle fingers in a semi-fist, used to express a variety of positive meanings including all right, hello and goodbye.
Noun
shaka (plural shakas)
- A greeting gesture in which the thumb and little finger are extended while curling the three middle fingers in a semi-fist, used to express a variety of positive meanings including all right, hello and goodbye.
- Greet someone with the slang, “Howzit?” and say goodbye with a flash of the “shaka” sign (fist closed, thumb and pinky extended) and you have established your credibility with Hawaii natives.2008 August 10, “Obama: At Home in the Islands”, in New York Times
- US President-elect Obama flashes the 'shaka' before he greets a crowd […]2008 December 27, photo caption, Reuters
- Synonyms:
- hang-loose sign
Synonyms of shaka
Forms of shaka
| plural | shakas |
|---|
Origin of shaka
Origin uncertain. Shaka is not a word in the Hawaiian language, which lacks the /ʃ/ sound.
Words that rhyme with shaka
Questions about shaka
- What does shaka mean?
- Shaka means a greeting gesture in which the thumb and little finger are extended while curling the three middle fingers in a semi-fist, used to express a variety of positive meanings including all right, hello and goodbye.
- What part of speech is shaka?
- Shaka is a noun.
- How do you pronounce shaka?
- Shaka is pronounced /ˈʃɑːkə/.
- What is the plural of shaka?
- The plural of shaka is shakas.
Words near shaka in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: shaka (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: “shaka.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shaka. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.