App Profile: Te Aka Māori Dictionary

Te Aka is a Māori language dictionary that is easy to use by searching for Māori or English words. It includes the ability to filter search results, and to save definitions to a Favourites list. There are currently over 24,000 Māori headword entries in the database, which is being added to over time. An offline dictionary has also been included when internet connectivity is not available.

As well as English meanings, it has example sentences with translations for many entries. It even has photographs and audio clips for Aotearoa/New Zealand native fauna and photographs of flora, important people and other items where a photograph will aid understanding.

In addition to the words one would expect in a traditional dictionary, it also has encyclopaedic entries designed to provide key information about plants, animals, stars, planets, heavenly bodies, important Māori people, key ancestors of traditional narratives, tribal groups, ancestral canoes, song types, musical instruments, Māori names for institutions, country names, place names and other proper names. There are also detailed explanations of key concepts central to Māori culture. Comprehensive explanations for grammatical items are included, with examples of usage, as are idioms and colloquialisms with their meanings and examples.

The Te Aka Maori app is the companion to the popular www.maoridictionary.co.nz website and forms part of the Te Whanake Māori Language learning series.