ʻōaka — meaning and pronunciation
Pronounced /OH-ah-kah/ — syllables: OH · ah · kah
Meaning
To open wide (as eyes or mouth), to stretch. This describes an expansive facial movement.
How to pronounce ʻōaka
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 ʻōaka mean?
To open wide (as eyes or mouth), to stretch. This describes an expansive facial movement.
How do you pronounce ʻōaka?
ʻōaka is pronounced /OH-ah-kah/ — broken into syllables: OH · ah · kah. Each vowel in Hawaiian is sounded separately, and the ʻokina (ʻ) is a glottal stop, like the pause in "uh-oh".
Is ʻōaka a verb?
Yes — ʻōaka is classified as a verb in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, within the Body 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.