Kanak

//kəˈnæk// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An indigenous Melanesian inhabitant of New Caledonia.

    "In the working-class districts of Nouméa, which have a high population of indigenous Kanak residents, buildings were burned and wrecked vehicles remained in the middle of the road."

Example

More examples

"In the working-class districts of Nouméa, which have a high population of indigenous Kanak residents, buildings were burned and wrecked vehicles remained in the middle of the road."

Etymology

First attested in 1910, borrowed from French canaque, from English kanaka (“Pacific islander”), from Hawaiian kanaka (“person”).

Related phrases

new caledonia

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