Word of the Day · Archive
The Hawaiian word for July 28, 2026
Archive · July 28, 2026
HOLOMUA
say it: ho-lo-MOO-ah
Progress, improvement — to move forward, to advance. Built from holo (to go) and mua (forward): in Hawaiian, progress is literally motion.
What it means
In the Pukui–Elbert Hawaiian Dictionary, holomua is recorded as “improvement, progress” — the same word as the fuller phrase holo i mua: to progress, advance, surpass, go ahead; progress, advancement; successful. One word, working as both noun and verb — the progress itself, and the act of making it.
Take it apart and you can see the canoe inside it. Holo is the great Hawaiian motion verb — to run, to sail, to go. Mua is the front, the forward direction. So holomua is not an abstraction the way “progress” is in English; it is a picture: something under way, moving toward the bow, going forward. In a voyaging culture, that is exactly how you would build a word for getting somewhere.
And because it comes from motion, holomua never means standing still and feeling accomplished. It means the paddle is in the water and the hull is moving.
How to use it
Holomua shows up in the dictionary, in one of the best-known Hawaiian proverbs, and even on the masthead of a kingdom-era newspaper. Each of these is attested:
holo i mua — the full phrase holomua contracts from, recorded in Pukui–Elbert: to progress, advance, surpass, go ahead. Forward motion, spelled out.
Pūpūkahi i holomua — “Unite to move forward.” An ʻōlelo noʻeau collected by Mary Kawena Pukui: like paddlers in a canoe, everyone pulls together on the same stroke, and only then does the canoe holomua.
Hawaii Holomua — the name of a Honolulu newspaper founded in 1891, its title rendered “Hawaiian Progress.” Proof the word has carried the idea of a people moving forward for well over a century.
Why this word matters
Yesterday’s word was hana — the work itself, the doing. Holomua is what all that hana adds up to. It felt right to pair them: Monday names the work, Tuesday names the forward motion the work creates. Second lā hana of the week, and the canoe should already be moving.
Progress, in Hawaiian, is not a ladder you climb alone — it is a canoe that only moves when everyone paddles together.
That is the quiet teaching inside Pūpūkahi i holomua. The proverb does not say “work harder” or “be better than yesterday.” It says unite — pull the same stroke at the same time — and forward motion follows. English tends to make progress a private scoreboard. Hawaiian makes it a crew effort, and the word itself, built on the voyaging verb holo, keeps that honesty: nobody paddles a canoe forward by themselves.
And the word carries history. When Hawaiians in 1891 named a newspaper Hawaii Holomua, they were claiming this word for their own future — progress on their own terms, in their own language. A word sturdy enough to put on a masthead is sturdy enough to put on your Tuesday.
So whatever you are building this week — the business, the garden, the apology you have been meaning to make — you do not have to finish it today. You just have to keep it moving forward. E holomua. Small strokes, same direction, together.
Sources
Wehewehe Wikiwiki / Wehewehe.org — Pukui & Elbert, Hawaiian Dictionary (1986)
Holomua: improvement, progress; same as holo i mua — to progress, advance, surpass, go ahead; progress, advancement; successful. Component entries: holo (to run, sail, go) and mua (front, forward, ahead).
The proverb Pūpūkahi i holomua (“unite to move forward”) is collected in Mary Kawena Pukui, ʻŌlelo Noʻeau: Hawaiian Proverbs and Poetical Sayings (Bishop Museum Press). Hawaii Holomua was a Honolulu newspaper established in 1891; its title is rendered “Hawaiian Progress.”