Meanings
nounkiawe (plural kiawes)
plural kiawes · alternative keawe
- Prosopis pallida, a species of mesquite tree.
Some kiawes have no thorns but usually the youngest branches of the tree have thorns, which are bad for barefoot Island children.
1996, Peggy Hickok Hodge, Gardening in Hawaii, page 801 more example
Take time to look around at the dawning light that casts lovely shadows on the rock and the gnarly kiawe (a relative of mesquite) trees that line the dry canyon walls.
2009 August 20, Jim Byers, “The summit of Hawaiian beauty”, in Toronto Star
Origin
- Hawaiiankiawe
- Englishkiawe
From Hawaiian kiawe.
More words from Hawaiian
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
APA
kiawe. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kiawe
MLA
“kiawe.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kiawe. Accessed November 3, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “kiawe,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kiawe.
Source: kiawe on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.