luau

L1U1A1U1
/ˈlu.aʊ/

noun

An elaborate Hawaiian feast featuring traditional foods and entertainment.

Less commonScrabble 4

Meanings

nounluau (plural luaus or luau)

plural luaus · alternative lūʻau

  1. An elaborate Hawaiian feast featuring traditional foods and entertainment.

    Other Americans and Europeans also made their way into court, drawn by its brilliant pageants and lavish lū‘au, or feasts.

    2012, Julia Flynn Siler, Lost Kingdom, Grove Press, published 2012, page 13
    1 more example

    MM: No secrets for him because he's the king of Hawaii. And so he said, "Do you want to come to a luau with Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger and Whoopi Goldberg?"

    2014 July 7, Hermione Hoby, “Mike Myers: why I made a film about supermensch Shep Gordon”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 09 Mar 2021

Origin

  1. Hawaiianlūʻau
  2. Englishluau

Borrowed from Hawaiian lūʻau. Replaced earlier paina (from pāʻina) and ahaaina (from ʻahaʻaina).

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

French luau
  • luauelaborate Hawaiian feast
Hawaiian lūʻau
  • lūʻauelaborate Hawaiian feast
Portuguese luau
  • luauelaborate Hawaiian feast
Spanish luau
  • luauelaborate Hawaiian feast

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

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