Word of the Day · Archive
The Hawaiian word for October 4, 2026
Archive · October 4, 2026
HOALOHA
say it: hoh-ah-LOH-hah
Friend — literally, “beloved companion.” The one who walks the road with you.
What it means
Hoaloha is the everyday Hawaiian word for a friend. Pukui and Elbert define it simply: “Friend. Literally, beloved companion.” Their example is as plain as it gets — kona hoaloha, “his friend.”
The word is built from two pieces you already half-know. Hoa is “companion, friend, associate, colleague, comrade, partner, mate, peer, fellow” (Pukui-Elbert), and aloha is love and affection. Andrews (1865) and Parker (1922) both describe hoaloha as a contraction of hoaaloha: “a friend; a beloved companion; one on friendly terms.”
So a hoaloha is not just someone you know. It is a hoa — someone beside you — joined to you by aloha. Pukui-Elbert also lists makamaka and aikāne for “friend,” each with its own shade, but hoaloha is the one you will hear most.
How to use it
Every phrase below is documented in the dictionary record on Wehewehe Wikiwiki.
Koʻu hoaloha
“My friend” (Pukui-Elbert). Note the o-class possessive koʻu — Pukui-Elbert marks hoaloha as o-class, while aikāne takes the a-class kaʻu.
Hoa pili
“Close, intimate, or personal friend” (Pukui-Elbert). The friend who is closest of all.
Hoʻohoaloha
“To make friends” (Pukui-Elbert, alongside hoʻohoa and hoʻāikāne). Add the causative hoʻo- and friendship becomes something you do.
Hoahele
“A traveling companion” (Andrews, 1865) — one of the many compounds Andrews notes are built on hoa, along with hoamoe, “a bed-fellow.”
Why this word matters
Look closely at hoaloha and you can see a whole way of thinking about people. Hawaiian does not just have a word for friend; it has a word-builder. Hoa attaches to almost anything you can share — a road (hoahele), a sleeping place (hoamoe) — and Pukui-Elbert notes that followed by a word like paio or kaua, a hoa can even be your opponent. A hoa is whoever stands across from you or beside you.
Hoaloha: a companion, joined to you by aloha.
Hoaloha is what happens when that companion is joined by aloha. It is a small reminder that friendship, in Hawaiian, is not a status. It is a shared path held together by care.
The word lives on the land, too. In Place Names of Hawaii, Pukui, Elbert, and Mookini record Hoaloha Park on the shore of Kahului Harbor, Maui, opened on Kamehameha Day in 1971. The name was chosen “to recognize the united efforts of the community to create the park.” Friends built it, so friends named it.
Today is Lāpule, Sunday — a day many of us spend at the beach, the table, or the backyard with the people who matter. Call your hoaloha. Tell them mahalo for walking the road with you.
Sources
Hoaloha — “friend; literally, beloved companion,” with the example kona hoaloha — is from the Hawaiian Dictionary (Pukui & Elbert, 1986), as are hoa (“companion, friend, associate, colleague, comrade, partner, mate, peer, fellow, antagonist”), hoa pili, and the English-Hawaiian entry for “friend” giving koʻu hoaloha, makamaka, aikāne, hoʻohoa, hoʻāikāne, and hoʻohoaloha. The contraction from hoaaloha and the compounds hoahele and hoamoe are Andrews (1865) and Parker (1922). Hoaloha Park, Kahului, is from Place Names of Hawaii (Pukui, Elbert & Mookini). Lāpule, Sunday (“prayer day”), is Pukui-Elbert (1986). All dictionary entries consulted via Wehewehe Wikiwiki (wehe.hilo.hawaii.edu) and wehewehe.org.