haole

hao·le
H4A1O1L1E1
US, UK/ˈhaʊ.li/

noun

A non-Hawaiian, especially a person of white European ancestry.

UncommonScrabble 8

Meanings

nounhaole (plural haole or haoles)

plural haoles

  1. HawaiiderogatorysometimesA non-Hawaiian, especially a person of white European ancestry.

    And the white guy who ate Rice-A-Roni with butter was the haole who didn’t speak pidgin or eat real rice.

    2009 January 18, Lois-ann Yamanaka, “This Man Is an Island”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC
    2 more examples

    I had never known any haoles except Elmer and Marks and they were ice cold affairs. Everyone was always glad when their twice-a-month visit was pau. The very island seemed to sigh with relief […]

    1946, Armine Von Tempski, Bright Spurs, page 122

    Commerce was flourishing in the kingdom and the rising merchant class was made up largely of haole rather than Hawaiians.

    2012, Julia Flynn Siler, Lost Kingdom, Grove Press, page 27

Synonyms & antonyms

Origin

  1. Hawaiianhaole
  2. Hawaiianhaole
  3. Englishhaole

Borrowed from Hawaiian haole.

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with haole

All rhymes →

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

haole. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/haole

MLA

“haole.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/haole. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “haole,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/haole.

Source: haole on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.