Here are the 50 Māori words every New Zealander should know. They are more commonly used now than ever before so if you don’t know them, you should get to learn them.
Aotearoa (New Zealand, long white cloud)
aroha (love)
awa (river)
haka (generic term for Māori dance. )
hangi (traditional feast prepared in earth oven)
hapu (clan, sub-tribe; to be born )
hīkoi (walk)
hui (gathering, meeting)
iti (small)
iwi (tribe)
kai (food)
karakia (prayer)
kaumatua (elder)
kauri (large native conifer)
kiwi (native flightless bird)
koha (gift, present (usually money, can be food or precious items, given by guest to hosts) )
kōhanga reo (language nest, Maori immersion pre-school (0 to 4 years))
mahi (work or activity)
mana (prestige, reputation)
manuhiri (guests, visitors)
Māori (indigenous inhabitants of New Zealand, the language of the indigenous inhabitants of New Zealand)
marae (the area for formal discourse in front of a meeting house, or applied to a whole marae complex)
maunga (mountain)
moa (extinct large flightless bird)
moana (sea)
motu (island)
nui (large, many, big)
pā (hill fort)
Pākehā (New Zealander of non-Māori descent, usually European)
pounamu (greenstone, jade)
puku (belly, stomach)
rangatira (person of chiefly rank, boss )
taihoa (to delay, to wait, to hold off to allow maturation of plans etc. )
tama (son, young man, youth)
tamāhine (daughter)
tamariki (children)
tāne (man, husband, men, husbands)
tangi (funeral)
taonga (treasured possessions or cultural items, anything precious)
tapu (sacred, not to be touched, to be avoided because sacred, taboo)
te reo Māori (the Māori Language)
tipuna/ tupuna (ancestor )
tuatara (reptiles endemic to New Zealand and which, although resembling most lizards, are part of a distinct lineage, the order Rhynchocephalia)
wahine (woman, wife)
wai (water)
waiata (song or chant)
waka (canoe, canoe group)
whaikōrero (the art and practise of speech-making )
whakapapa (genealogy, to recite genealogy )
whānau (extended family)
whenua (land, homeland)