Meanings
- alternativeAlternative spelling of okina.
The state said that of the nearly 2,000 streets under HDOT’s jurisdiction, over half require the addition of Hawaiian diacritical markings, and that the use of kahakō and ʻokina can drastically change the meaning of a word.
2026 February 28, HNN Staff, “State seeks public feedback on Hawaiian street names”, in Hawaii News Now, Honolulu, Haw.: Gray Local Media, archived from the original on 28 Feb 20261 more example
I was aware of the ʻokina and kahakō from many previous trips to Hawaiʻi and I had dealt with similar issues back in California related to English-language media using the Spanish tilde and accents. […] So I took a closer look and it turns out that today technology is our friend: ʻOkina and kahakō don’t seem to stump searches anymore and our content management system accommodates them all the way from our keyboards to your cellphones and computers.
2025 January 21, Amy Pyle, “Why Civil Beat Is Using Diacritical Marks In Our Stories Now”, in Honolulu Civil Beat, Honolulu, Haw., →OCLC, archived from the original on 21 Jan 2025
Origin
- Hawaiianʻoki
- Hawaiianʻokina
- Englishʻokina
Unadapted borrowing from Hawaiian ʻokina (“cutting off, separation”).
More words from Hawaiian
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
ʻokina. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/%CA%BBokina
“ʻokina.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/%CA%BBokina. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “ʻokina,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/%CA%BBokina.
Source: ʻokina on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.