ʻaʻau — meaning and pronunciation
Pronounced /ah-ah-oo/ — syllables: ah · ah · oo
Meaning
To swim, especially in the ocean. It implies a natural movement through water.
How to pronounce ʻaʻau
Hawaiian vowels are always sounded separately. A kahakō (line above a vowel) lengthens it; the ʻokina (ʻ) is a glottal stop, like the pause in “uh-oh”.
Frequently asked
What does ʻaʻau mean?
To swim, especially in the ocean. It implies a natural movement through water.
How do you pronounce ʻaʻau?
ʻaʻau is pronounced /ah-ah-oo/ — broken into syllables: ah · ah · oo. Each vowel in Hawaiian is sounded separately, and the ʻokina (ʻ) is a glottal stop, like the pause in "uh-oh".
Is ʻaʻau a verb?
Yes — ʻaʻau is classified as a verb in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, within the Ocean category.
Where does this definition come from?
Definitions and pronunciations on hawaiian-words.com are drawn from the authoritative Pukui-Elbert Hawaiian Dictionary (rev. ed. 1986), the standard scholarly reference for ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi.