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
“Not officially. But there’s a lot of empty land. You know, those abandoned pineapple fields? Thousands of acres. Yeah, so I’m working with a few others to plant trees. Native species like koa, and ‘ōhi‘a.”
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
“This is where your mom and I used to come. There’s another way to get here. More direct, through a thicket of koa trees. But you found it all the same.”
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.
