Te Aka Māori Dictionary

Te Murumāra Foundation

About this app

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.

Ratings and reviews

Love the new quiz feature. Would be awesome to have a button to play the audio too. Also, if there more than 15 words in each folder and then the quiz only does the same 15 words. it would be good if these words are randomised. Bug fixed on 25/09! Thanks!

Very handy app that I use everyday. A "word of the day" feature would be great! To learn a new word each day is handy in any language. Comment edit: It's 2024, and I would still love a kupu o te ra (word of the day) widget/ notification. That'd definitely be something people would love to wake up to.

It has incredible potential, however it is glitchy on my mate 9. Doesn't scroll properly. Can't search Māori words with a macron in search bar. My s9 version ran great, however it was missing many entries for some reason so I was best using online version. It's the best available as descriptions are so good, and examples. But it needs a lot of tuning up.

What's new

Fixes a number of issues with the Favourites list.