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Mākaukau means "able, competent, prepared." You often hear this word called out by chanters who are asking the hula dancers if they are ready. The answer is always ʻae, for yes. -
Our Hawaiian word for today is papa heʻe nalu. Papa can mean a "board or almost any kind of flat surface." Adding heʻe nalu to it makes it a surfboard. Heʻe means "to slide or surf," and nalu means "wave." Put it all together and you get a surfboard.
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Hungry? In Hawaiian we say pōloli. It means hungry, hunger, famine. -
Today's word of the day is a well-known name, Liliʻuokalani. She was our last queen, overthrown in January 1893. Many mispronounce because of familiarity with the English name Lily. -
If you barbecue a lot, you probably already know today's word of the day. Pūlehu means to broil. Although it most correctly means broiling as you would sweet potatoes, breadfruit or bananas placed on hot embers. We often used pūlehu to describe meat that has been broiled. -
Pua is a very well known and often used Hawaiian word. In common usage it means: flower, blossom, even the tassel and stem of sugar cane. It means to bloom, and among its many other meanings is child, descendant, offspring. -
Pālule-t means t-shirt. And as you may have guessed, it is a relatively new term. Yes, pālule means "shirt," and we just added the modifier "T" following the noun. -
Mākaʻi means policeman, also means to police or inspect. Since all of our policemen speak English, you won’t need to ask for one in Hawaiian. But it will impress many of them if you can call them a mākaʻi. -
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Akua has many meanings, but none more common in today's Hawaiian than "god." In Hawaiian, there are many different kinds of gods, and akua can mean goddess, spirit, ghost, devil, image, idol, divine, even a corpse. -
Leo means voice, tone, tune, melody, sound, command, and more. It is most often used today to mean voice and is heard often in describing singers, such as the leo nahenahe, or as the name of the private preschool Punanaleo, “the voice nest.” -
Our Hawaiian Word of the Day is often mispronounced place name, Haʻikū. It means “a sharp break or to speak abruptly,” and is often confused with the Japanese term haiku for a type of poetry.
