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Maori Dictionaries & Databases
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Home - Maori Songs - Kiwi Songs

Have fun and make amazing discoveries! Remember that Maori song lyrics are just like English poetry:
  they use elliptical speech, they are not always grammatically correct, and the phrases may have several
layers of meaning. You are not translating legal documents! See Difficulties translating moteatea         

Te Aka Maori Dictionary

An easy-to-use dictionary.
Enter a Mäori or an English word, or a phrase.  

Ngata Dictionary

When you put in a Maori or English headword, it gives you sentences and phrases drawn from a wide range of examples.

GO TO NGATA

Williams' Maori Dictionary
        Herbert Williams, 6th edition, 1957
            

A - E - H - I - K - M - N - NG - O

P - R - T - U - W - Non-Polynesian

    
Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary
          Edward Tregear, 1891
 
            
A - E - H - I - K - M - N - NG - O

 P - R - T - U - W - WH - Other pages

  
NZ Maori Word Encyclopedia
       Sally-Anne Lambert, 2007
It gathers words together with other related ones. Enter an English or Maori word or a phrase. Then click on the page xxx to view a whole page.

  
Tai Tokerau Maori Dictionary

Enter single words or phrases in English or Maaori. Use ä, ë, ï, ö, ü for long vowels.

  
He Pataka Kupu
      
na Te Wharehuia Milroy

        Mo te hunga korero Maori.
        The word definitions are all in Te Reo.
  
Polynesian Lexicon Project Online
      
a comparative dictionary of more than 65 Polynesian languages.


 
    
Google Translate
It will very quickly make a reasonable English translation of long factual articles written in Maori, like the old Maori newspapers that are now online. But the poetic imagery, fractured grammar and abbreviated phrases of older Maori songs are usually too difficult for Google Translate.  To translate Maori songs, you usually need Williams' dictionary, background knowledge, patience and lots of common sense.

Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database Chose one of these 200 basic words and explore how it links Maori to other SE Asian and Pacific Ocean languages.
CHOOSE A WORD
Or enter a word that could mean
 
 
  
Cook Islands Online Dictionary

Search all the Cook Island Maori dialects.
Enter a Cook Island or English word, or a phrase.  
Cook Islands Maori Dictionary
          Jasper Buse and Raututi Taringa, 1995
There are several dialects of Cook Islands. This dictionary mainly uses the Rarotonga dialect.

  

National Library

          NL's Search Page

NZ Electronic Text Centre

Papers Past

          Newspapers     Journals & magazines,
         Diaries & letters,   Parliamentary papers

Niupepa - Maori Newspapers

Search
                          for of the words
 

Early New Zealand Books

University of Auckland Library
        

Fletcher list of Maori names

A | E | H | I | K | M | N | O | P | R | T | U | W

      
New Zealand Gazetteer

Search for place names
. . .for example, those containing
"titi" in their name.

Wakareo

A Mäori-English-Mäori lexicon produced with the assistance and cooperation of the Mäori Language Commission. Much bigger than the dictionaries above, if you at a university, or have $200 a year to buy access to it!     
MORE DETAIL  

Maori Songs - Kiwi Songs - Home

Updated June 2023