Kanaka
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A person of Hawaiian descent.
"It was considered one of the nation’s strictest bans because of the reference to Kanakas – native Hawaiians – and because Nevada was the only other state to add Chinese."
- 2 Alternative letter-case form of kanaka. alt-of
- 3 A South Pacific Islander, especially a labourer in Australia or Canada. historical
"There remains one case to be considered, that of the deportation of the Kanakas who were introduced into Queensland for the purpose of work on the sugar plantations.[…]It was, however, felt in the south that a white Australia was essential, and the Commonwealth passed in 1901 an Act (No. 16) which arranged for the deportation of all Kanakas within a few years."
Example
More examples"It was considered one of the nation’s strictest bans because of the reference to Kanakas – native Hawaiians – and because Nevada was the only other state to add Chinese."
Etymology
1840. From Hawaiian kanaka (“person”), ultimately from Proto-Polynesian *taŋata.
More for "kanaka"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.