koa
Americannoun
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a Hawaiian acacia, Acacia koa, of the legume family, characterized by spreading branches and gray bark.
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the hard, red or golden-brown wood of this tree, used for making furniture.
noun
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a Hawaiian leguminous tree, Acacia koa, yielding a hard wood
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the reddish wood of this tree, used esp for furniture
Etymology
Origin of koa
Borrowed into English from Hawaiian around 1840–50
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.
Bentley has increasingly focused on customization, from hand-stitched leather to finishes ranging from walnut to koa wood, or even 5,000-year-old wood fished out of England's low-lying wetland Fens.
From Reuters • Jan. 10, 2023
The sprawling lobby also houses the Kai Opua Canoe Club’s 40-foot canoe made from a koa tree, which is endemic to Hawaii.
From New York Times • Nov. 27, 2022
Jasmine gasped as she caught sight of three people on foot, stranded between billowing walls of flame devouring the haole koa and the towering stands of dry elephant grass.
From Slate • Nov. 27, 2021
The koa wood case of the auctioned model was added by a pioneering early computer retailer, ByteShop, in California, which took delivery of around 50 of the Apple-1 machines.
From BBC • Nov. 9, 2021
“Well, I wouldn’t have been able to get this far with that map. Everything looks different. I wonder how big those koa saplings we planted are by now.”
From "Clairboyance" by Kristiana Kahakauwila
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.
