luau

• lūʻau

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈlu.aʊ/

luau (plural luaus or luau)

1. An elaborate Hawaiian feast featuring traditional foods and entertainment.
   • 2012, Julia Flynn Siler, Lost Kingdom, Grove Press, published 2012, page 13:

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

   • 2014 July 7, Hermione Hoby, “Mike Myers: why I made a film about supermensch Shep Gordon”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     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?"

• hula

• lūʻau on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Pukui, Mary Kawena; Samuel H. Elbert (1986), Hawaiian Dictionary, Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, →ISBN, p. 214

• ulua

Borrowed from English luau, from Hawaiian lūʻau

• Rhymes: -aw
• Hyphenation: lu‧au

luau m (plural luaus)

1. luau (elaborate Hawaiian feast)
2. (by extension) An informal gathering on the beach (usually at night) with live music, drinks, often a bonfire, etc.

• “luau”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2025
• “luau”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025
• “luau”, in Dicio – Dicionário Online de Português (in Portuguese), São Paulo: 7Graus, 2009–2025

luau

1. third-person plural imperfect of lua

   ei luau ― they took