atua
Britishnoun
Etymology
Origin of atua
Māori
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.
The objects of worship among the Tahitians, next to the atua or gods, were the oramatuas tiis or spirits.
From The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead Vol. II by Frazer, James George, Sir
Even the priest was puzzled, this, he said, was clearly a deceitful spirit, or atua, like those of which Porphyry complains, like most of them in fact.
From Cock Lane and Common-Sense by Lang, Andrew
The Society-Islanders had their day-born gods, but they were not supposed to be "of equal antiquity with the atua fauau po, or night-born gods."
From A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers by Thoreau, Henry David
When the clouds are beautifully chequered," writes Kendal, "the atua above, it is supposed, is planting sweet potatoes.
From John Rutherford, the White Chief by Craik, George Lillie
The Marquesan term for a god was the usual Polynesian word atua or, as it is sometimes spelled, etua.
From The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead Vol. II by Frazer, James George, Sir
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
