100 Māori words every New Zealander should know

100 words in te reo Māori

These words are grouped according to the following functions and associations:

• the marae
• concepts
• people and their groups
• components of place names
• greetings
• body parts

We have included individual sound files of spoken versions of all these words – just click on the word and it will be spoken! (See also pronunciation notes and te reo for email.) New: 365 more useful Māori words and phrases

Hear Tairongo Amoamo read the complete list: click on arrow to play or download as mp3 (493kb)

The marae

• Hui meeting, conference, gathering 
• Marae the area for formal discourse in front of a meeting house; or the whole marae complex, including meeting house, dining hall, forecourt, etc. 
• Haere mai! Welcome! Enter! 
• Nau mai! Welcome! 
• Tangihanga funeral ceremony in which a body is mourned on a marae 
• Tangi short (verbal version) for the above; or to cry, to mourn
• Karanga the ceremony of calling to the guests to welcome them onto the marae 
• Manuhiri guests, visitors 
• Tangata whenua original people belonging to a place, local people, hosts
• Whaikōrero the art and practice of speech making
• Kaikōrero or kaiwhai kōrero speaker (there are many other terms) 
• Haka chant with dance for the purpose of challenge (see other references to haka on this site)
• Waiata song or chant which follows a speech
• Koha gift, present (usually money, can be food or precious items, given by guest to hosts)
• Whare nui meeting house; sometimes run together as one word – wharenui
• Whare whakairo carved meeting house
• Whare kai dining hall
• Whare paku lavatory, toilet
• Whare horoi ablution block, bathroom

Concepts

• Aroha compassion, tenderness, sustaining love
• Ihi power, authority, essential force
• Mana authority, power; secondary meaning: reputation, influence
• Manaakitanga respect for hosts or kindness to guests, to entertain, to look after
• Mauri hidden essential life force or a symbol of this
• Noa safe from tapu (see below), non-sacred, not tabooed
• Raupatu confiscate, take by force
• Rohe boundary, a territory (either geographical or spiritual) of an iwi or hapū
• Taihoa to delay, to wait, to hold off to allow maturation of plans, etc.
• Tapu sacred, not to be touched, to be avoided because sacred, taboo
• Tiaki to care for, look after, guard (kaitiaki: guardian, trustee)
• Taonga treasured possession or cultural item, anything precious
• Tino rangatiratanga the highest possible independent chiefly authority, paramount authority, sometimes used for sovereignty
• Tūrangawaewae a place to stand, a place to belong to, a seat or location of identity
• Wehi to be held in awe
• Whakapapa genealogy, to recite genealogy, to establish kin connections
• Whenua land, homeland, country (also afterbirth, placenta)

People and their groups

• Ariki male or female of high inherited rank from senior line of descent
• Hapū clan, tribe, independent section of a people (modern usage – sub-tribe); pregnant
• Iwi people, nation (modern usage – tribe); bones
• Kaumātua elder or elders, senior people in a kin group
• Ngāi Tātou a term for everyone present – ‘we all’
• Pākehā this word is not an insult; its derivation is obscure; it is the Māori word for people living in New Zealand of British/European origin; originally it would not have included, for example, Dalmatians, Italians, Greeks, Indians, Chinese
• Rangatira person of chiefly rank, boss, owner
• Tama son, young man, youth
• Tamāhine daughter
• Tamaiti one child
• Tamariki children
• Tāne man/men, husband(s)
• Teina/taina junior relative, younger brother of a brother, younger sister of a sister
• Tipuna/tupuna ancestor
• Tuahine sister of a man
• Tuakana senior relative, older brother of a brother, older sister of a sister
• Tungāne brother of a sister
• Wahine woman, wife (wāhine: women, wives)
• Waka canoe, canoe group (all the iwi and hapū descended from the crew of a founding waka)
• Whāngai fostered or adopted child, young person
• Whānau extended or non-nuclear family; to be born
• Whanaunga kin, relatives

Components of place names

Terms for geographical features, such as hills, rivers, cliffs, streams, mountains, the coast; and adjectives describing them, such as small, big, little and long, are found in many place names. Here is a list so you can recognise them:

• Au current
• Awa river
• Iti small, little
• Kai in a place name, this signifies a place where a particular food source was plentiful, e.g., Kaikōura, the place where crayfish (kōura) abounded and were eaten
• Manga stream
• Mānia plain
• Maunga mountain
• Moana sea, or large inland ‘sea’, e.g., Taupō
• Motu island
• Nui large, big
• Ō or o means ‘of’ (so does a, ā); many names begin with Ō, meaning the place of so-and-so, e.g., Ōkahukura, Ōkiwi, Ōhau
• One sand, earth
• Pae ridge, range
• Papa flat
• Poto short
• Puke hill
• Roa long
• Roto lake; inside
• Tai coast, tide
• Wai water
• Whanga harbour, bay

Greetings

• E noho rā Goodbye (from a person leaving)
• Haere rā Goodbye (from a person staying)
• Haere mai Welcome! Come!
• Hei konā rā Goodbye (less formal)
• Kia ora Hi! G’day! (general informal greeting)
• Mōrena (Good) morning!
• Nau mai Welcome! Come!
• Tēnā koe formal greeting to one person
• Tēnā kōrua formal greeting to two people
• Tēnā koutou formal greeting to many people
• Tēnā tātou katoa formal inclusive greeting to everybody present, including oneself

Body parts

• Arero tongue
• Ihu nose
• Kakī neck
• Kauae chin (also kauwae)
• Kōpū womb
• Māhunga (also makawe) hair (always plural, indicated by ngā [the, plural]); also head
• Manawa heart
• Niho teeth
• Poho chest (also uma)
• Puku belly, stomach
• Raho testicles
• Ringa hand, arm
• Toto blood
• Tou anus
• Turi knee (also pona)
• Tūtae excrement, ordure
• ū breast (breast-milk is wai-ū)
• Upoko head
• Ure penis
• Waewae foot/feet, leg/legs

See also: 365 useful Māori words and phrases

A note on pronunciation

The following English equivalents are a rough guide to pronouncing vowels in Māori:

• a as in far
• e as in desk and the first ‘e’ in where; it should be short and sharp
• i as in fee, me, see
• o as in awe (not ‘oh!’)
• u as in sue, boot

There are fewer consonants, and only a few are different from English:

• r should not be rolled. It is pronounced quite close to the sound of ‘l’ in English, with the tongue near the front of the mouth.
• t is pronounced more like ‘d’ than ‘t’, with the tip of the tongue slightly further back from the teeth
• wh counts as a consonant; the standard modern pronunciation is close to the ‘f’ sound. In some districts it is more like an ‘h’; in others more like a ‘w’ without the ‘h’; in others again more like the old aspirated English pronunciation of ‘wh’ (‘huence’ for whence)
• ng counts as a consonant and is pronounced like the ‘ng’ in ‘singer’. It is not pronounced like the ‘ng’ in ‘finger’, i.e., Whāngārei is pronounced Far-n(g)ah-ray (not Fong-gah-ray); Tauranga is pronounced Tow- (to rhyme with sew) rah-n(g)ah (not Tow-rang-gah).

The macron – a little line above some vowels – indicates vowel length. Some words spelled the same have different meanings according to their vowel length. For example, anā means ‘here is’ or ‘behold’: Anā te tangata! (Here is the man!) Ana, with no macron, means a cave. Some writers of modern Māori double the vowel instead of using macrons when indicating a long vowel; the first example would be Anaa te tangata!

Using te reo in email (and snail mail)

This is a guide to appropriate email greetings and sign-offs in te reo Māori.

We encourage you to add other phrases you have received – or any questions you have – as community contributions below this post; or email us at [email protected].

Generic greetings suitable for most occasions

• Formal for one person (where in English you might use ‘Dear’): Tēnā koe
• Informal: Kia ora

When addressing two people

• Formal: Tēnā kōrua
• Informal: Kia ora kōrua

When addressing more than two people

• Formal: Tēnā koutou
• Informal: Kia ora koutou

Generic sign-offs suitable for most occasions

Formal:

• Nāku (noa), nā  [your name] = yours sincerely [your name]  from one person
• Nā māua (noa), nā  [your names] = yours sincerely [your names] - from two people
• Nā mātou (noa), nā  [your names or group name] = yours sincerely [your names or group name] - from more than two people

Adding ‘noa’ in the above examples adds a sense of humility - e.g. ‘Nāku, nā’ is ‘From [your name]’,  whereas ‘Nāku noa, nā’ is more like ‘It’s just [your name]’

Informal:

•  Hei konā mai (or just Hei konā)

Other greetings and sign-offs

Please provide more examples from emails you have received as community contributions at the bottom of this page; or email us at [email protected]

• In the morning, an informal greeting could be: Mōrena (good morning - an alternative is ‘Ata mārie’ )
• Kia ora e hoa (informal greeting to a friend)
• If someone greets you with: Tēnā koutou e hoa mā
  An appropriate response would be: Tēnā koe, e hoa (or, less formally, Kia ora e hoa).
• The sign off: Noho ora mai rā, nā … is: Look after yourself, from …

For Christmas:

• Meri Kirihimete - Merry Christmas
• Ngā mihi o te Kirihimete me te Tau Hou - Season’s greetings for Christmas and the New Year
• Meri Kirihimete ki a koe/kōrua/koutou - Merry Christmas to you (1 person) / you (2 people) / you (3 or more people)
• Ngā mihi o te Kirihimete ki a koe/kōrua/koutou - Greetings of the Christmas season to you  (1 person) / you (2 people) / you (3 or more people).