Lavalava

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An everyday item of clothing traditionally worn by Polynesians and other Oceanic peoples, consisting of a single rectangular cloth worn as a skirt, secured around the waist by an overhand knotting of the upper corners.

    "Some tourists buy Samoan identity merchandise as novelties, but most prefer sloganless items such as printed lavalavas."

  2. 2
    a skirt consisting of a rectangle of calico or printed cotton; worn by Polynesians (especially Samoans) wordnet

Example

More examples

"Some tourists buy Samoan identity merchandise as novelties, but most prefer sloganless items such as printed lavalavas."

Etymology

Borrowed from Samoan lava-lava.

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