moa
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of moa
Borrowed into English from Maori around 1810–20
Vocabulary lists containing moa
Australia and New Zealand - Introductory
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Australia and New Zealand - Middle School and High School
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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.
But outside scientists suggest it’s a stretch to see that as a major step toward resurrecting the moa, a giant flightless bird that disappeared from its New Zealand habitat in the 1400s.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 21, 2026
Does the moa mean the same thing to them in 2025 that it did 800 years ago, when it was an important source of food and material for making ornaments and tools?
From Slate ● Aug. 8, 2025
A tussle with the moa in our streets?
From Washington Post ● Jun. 8, 2022
The Haast’s eagle went extinct around 1400 when its prey, the flightless moa, was hunted into extinction by Maori settlers.
From New York Times ● Nov. 30, 2021
New Zealand formerly possessed three species of dinornis, one of which, called moa by the islanders, was much larger than the ostrich.
From Man and Nature or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action by George P. Marsh
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
