Moananuiākea
/moʊ.ə.nəˌnuː.iː.ɑːˈkeɪ.ə/noun
A Hawaiian name for the Pacific Ocean, literally describing it as a vast, expansive ocean.
Did you know?In Hawaiian cultural usage, Moananuiākea can signify more than a body of water: it evokes the ancestral oceanic realm connecting islands, people, navigation, and genealogy.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Polynesian
Proto-Polynesian
*moana
“Ocean or deep open sea”
Proto-Polynesian
Proto-Polynesian
*nui
“Great, large, or important”
Proto-Polynesian
Proto-Polynesian
*ʔa(ː)kea
“Wide, broad, or expansive; reconstructed source of Hawaiian ākea”
Traditional Hawaiian
Hawaiian
moana nui ākea
“Great, broad ocean”
Modern English usage
English
Moananuiākea
“A Hawaiian name for the Pacific Ocean, especially in cultural, educational, and Indigenous contexts”