noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A spiritual being in Polynesian culture; a god or demon. New-Zealand

   "Nothing was taken from the domain of these atua without respect, propitiation and expressions of gratitude."

Synonyms

All synonyms

daemondemonevil spiritgeniusintelligencespecter

Example

More examples

"Atua is the god for many in Oceania."

Etymology

From Māori atua. Compare Tahitian atua, Samoan atua, Hawaiian akua.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.