Word of the Day · Archive
The Hawaiian word for October 11, 2026
Archive · October 11, 2026
KIAʻI
say it: kee-AH-ee
Guard, watchman, caretaker — one who watches over a person, place, or thing; and, as a verb, to watch over and guard.
What it means
Kiaʻi is a guard, a watchman, a caretaker. The Wehewehe Wikiwiki entry reads “guard, watchman, caretaker; to watch, guard, picket; to overlook, as a bluff,” and marks the word as both a noun and a verb: the person who keeps watch, and the act of keeping it.
The older record spells out the verb more fully: “to watch over; to guard; to take charge of; to look out for; to act the part of, or to do the duty of a guard,” and also “to wait for; to expect.” As a noun it is “a guard; a watchman,” and it can also name the time of a watch.
The pronunciation is three even beats with the stress on the middle: kee-AH-ee. The ʻokina before the final vowel is a real stop — a small catch in the voice — so it is kiaʻi, not kiai run together.
How to use it
Every phrase below is documented in a dictionary record, a Hawaiian-language glossary, or a published Hawaiian word-of-the-day segment, as noted.
Kiaʻi loko
“Guard or caretaker of a fishpond” (Heʻeia fishpond glossary). A loko is a pond; the kiaʻi loko is the one who tends and watches over it.
Hale kiaʻi
“Watchtower, tower, guard house” (Heʻeia glossary). Hale is house, so this is, literally, the house of the one who watches.
Poe kiaʻi
“Guards” (in the older dictionary entry, under the verb sense “to wait for; to expect; to think”). Poe is a group or company, so this is a company of guards.
E hoʻolohe pono i nā kiaʻi.
“Listen well to the guardians.” The sentence offered in Hawaiʻi News Now’s Hawaiian Word of the Day segment on kiaʻi, where the word is explained as someone with the kuleana to protect and preserve a person, place, or thing.
Why this word matters
Last week the words were about giving and what is precious. Kiaʻi is the next question: once something is makamae, who watches over it?
A kiaʻi is not an owner. A kiaʻi is someone who keeps watch.
The dictionary gives the word one root idea — to watch over, to look out for — and then lets it stretch across very different jobs: a caretaker, a lookout on a bluff, the keeper of a fishpond, a company of guards. In every one of them, the person is defined by their attention to something that is not themselves.
That is why the word carries so naturally into how people speak about land, water, and community today. As the Hawaiʻi News Now segment puts it, a kiaʻi has the kuleana — the responsibility — for protecting and preserving a person, place, or thing. The word does not say how loudly, or how big; it says that someone is paying attention.
Today is Lāpule, Sunday. Think of one person, one place, or one small thing you are quietly watching over, and let this be the day you notice it.
Sources
Kiaʻi — “guard, watchman, caretaker; to watch, guard, picket; to overlook, as a bluff,” and the fuller verb and noun senses (“to watch over; to guard; to take charge of; to look out for,” “to wait for; to expect,” “a guard; a watchman,” “the time of a watch,” and poe kiaʻi, “guards”) — are from the dictionary records on Wehewehe Wikiwiki (wehe.colo.hawaii.edu); the page does not label each block by author, so no single dictionary is credited here. Kiaʻi loko (“guard or caretaker of a fishpond”) and hale kiaʻi (“watchtower, tower, guard house”) are from the Heʻeia fishpond glossary (Kamehameha Schools). “E hoʻolohe pono i nā kiaʻi” and the explanation of kiaʻi as one with kuleana to protect and preserve are from Hawaiʻi News Now, “Hawaiian Word of the Day: Kiai” (Laiana Kanoa-Wong, December 15, 2017). Lāpule, Sunday, is standard Hawaiian usage.