kanaka
noun
a Native Hawaiian.
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Kanapa z.
kanaka
American
[kuh-nak-uh, -nah-kuh, kan-uh-kuh]
/ kəˈnæk ə, -ˈnɑ kə, ˈkæn ə kə /
noun
(sometimes initial capital letter)
-
a Native Hawaiian.
-
a South Sea islander.
Kanaka
British
/ kəˈnækə, ˈkænəkə /
noun
-
(esp in Hawaii) a native Hawaiian
-
(often not capital) any native of the South Pacific islands, esp (formerly) one abducted to work in Australia
Etymology
Origin of kanaka
From Hawaiian: “person”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The kanaka of Hawaii, the Native Hawaiians who inhabit the islands, value ’ohana, which extends beyond the familial ties of blood.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 26, 2023
There has been no wholesale return of Hawaiian crown lands to the kanaka maoli, only promises and fitful attempts at restitution amid generations of wistful nostalgia and frustration.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 16, 2022
In the late 1960s and into the ’70s, Native Hawaiians, the kanaka maoli, led a revival of interest in Hawaii’s history, language, music, dance and other traditional arts.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 16, 2022
It’s an unsustainable arrangement that has displaced many of our people: Half the global kanaka population now live outside Hawaiʻi.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 8, 2022
Ia manawa, imi ae la ka Makaula i waa, a loaa ia ia he kaulua, me na kanaka pu no hoi.
From The Hawaiian Romance Of Laieikawai by Martha Warren Beckwith
Kanaka elders have insisted that no more telescopes be built on Mauna Kea, which Native Hawaiians consider to be ancestral and sacred.
From Salon ● Aug. 21, 2024
Patrick Michell, chief of the Kanaka Bar First Nation, first began noticing worrying changes in the forest near his reserve in British Columbia, Canada, more than three decades ago.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2021
“Hopefully that’ll help keep some of these fires down,” he said, noting that another blaze ignited about a quarter-mile from the one in the Kanaka Valley on Friday morning, but it was already contained.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2021
The hikes: Easy walks through a coastal rain forest, waterfalls and sandstone cliffs await visitors at this wilderness park along the Kanaka Creek, just five miles from downtown Maple Ridge.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 13, 2018
The business being now happily arranged, His Majesty and the Admiral became seated, and the rest of us were permitted to mingle freely with the Kanaka court.
From Los Gringos Or, An Inside View of Mexico and California, with Wanderings in Peru, Chili, and Polynesia by H. A. (Henry Augustus) Wise
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
