© 2024 Hawaiʻi Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Hawaiian Word of the Day
Weekdays at 7:30am & 5:29pm on HPR-1, and 3pm on HPR-2

This daily feature encourages awareness of the use of Hawaiian language, or ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, in everyday conversation. In each 30-second vignette, host Leilani Poliʻahu introduces a new word, explains what it means, spells it, and models the correct pronunciation.

  • Our Hawaiian Word of the Day is moku. We often use moku to mean a district, an island, severed portion, or fragment, or as the root for other common words such as mokuahi for steamship, mokuʻāina for state, mokulele for airplane, or a mokuluʻu for a submarine, a diving ship. But the first use of moku means to be cut, severed, amputated, broken in two. There are many opportunities every day to use that common word, moku.