Māori Dictionary

This dictionary and index comprises a selection of modern and everyday language that will be extremely useful for learners of the Māori language. It has a broader scope than traditional dictionaries, so as well as the words one would usually expect in a dictionary, it also includes:

• encyclopaedic entries designed to provide key information about plants, animals (including fish and insects), stars, planets, heavenly bodies, important Māori people, key ancestors of traditional narratives, tribal groups, ancestral canoes, song types, traditional musical instruments, Māori names for institutions, country names, place names and other proper names
• explanations of key concepts central to Māori culture.
• comprehensive explanations for grammatical items, with examples of usage.
• idioms and colloquialisms.

These have all been included because they are important in communicating in a Māori context, and contribute to understanding and speaking the language in a natural way.

While this dictionary is designed to stand alone, it not only contains all the words used in the Te Whanake series of narrative texts and resources, but is indexed to the Te Whanake series, thus giving quick access to topics, maps, illustrations, idioms, colloquialisms, proverbs, tribal sayings, grammar and usage explanations.

New to this edition

The new expanded edition contains more than 13,000 separate headwords and 16,000 separate meanings in the Māori-English section. This is almost 6,000 new separate meanings more than in the previous edition. There are also over 18,000 English headwords in the English-Māori finder lists, an additional 5,000 more than in the previous edition.