Word of the Day · Archive
The Hawaiian word for July 30, 2026
Archive · July 30, 2026
HOʻOLOHE
say it: hoh-oh-LOH-heh
To listen; to pay attention; to heed, to obey. Built on lohe, to hear — hoʻolohe is hearing you choose to do.
What it means
Hoʻolohe is built from two pieces: the causative prefix hoʻo- and lohe, to hear. In the Pukui–Elbert dictionary, lohe means to hear, mind, obey, listen — and even to feel, as the tug of a fishing line. Add hoʻo- and you get something more deliberate. Parker’s 1922 dictionary defines hoʻolohe as “to cause to hear; to turn the attention; to listen; to regard; to obey.”
That’s the heart of it: lohe is what your ears do on their own. Hoʻolohe is what you do — turning your attention, making yourself hear. English separates “listen” and “obey” into different words. Hawaiian holds them together in one: to truly listen is already to heed. Andrews’ 1865 dictionary put it as giving “such attention as to understand and practice.”
Yesterday’s word was leo, the voice. Hoʻolohe is the other half of that exchange — the ear that receives it. A voice with no listener is only sound.
How to use it
These constructions are attested in the dictionaries and in a collected proverb:
lohe pono — to listen carefully, to hear correctly. The dictionary’s own phrase for attentive hearing: pono makes the listening right and thorough.
Lohe mai i ke aʻo — heed the teachings. A Pukui–Elbert example that pairs hearing with aʻo, to teach and to learn — a word this page featured on July 17.
Nānā ka maka; hoʻolohe ka pepeiao; paʻa ka waha — “The eyes observe; the ears listen; the mouth is shut.” An ʻōlelo noʻeau collected by Mary Kawena Pukui, describing how one learns best — by watching and listening first.
Why this word matters
In the traditional Hawaiian way of learning, hoʻolohe came before nearly everything else. The proverb above lays out the whole method: watch with your eyes, listen with your ears, keep your mouth still. Skills — fishing, planting, weaving, chant — were passed down by kūpuna to learners who earned the knowledge by paying attention, not by interrupting with questions. Listening was not passive. It was the work.
The word itself teaches something English keeps separate. Because hoʻolohe means both “listen” and “heed,” there is no such thing in Hawaiian as hearing your kūpuna and ignoring them — if you truly hoʻolohe, the listening shows up in what you do next. The tug on the fishing line in the dictionary’s definition of lohe says it plainly: hearing, in Hawaiian, is something you feel, and something that moves you.
Yesterday, leo — the voice. Today, hoʻolohe — the choice to hear it.
That pairing is the oldest conversation there is: a voice offered, an ear turned toward it. Whatever calls for your attention today — a person, the rain arriving, your own naʻau — the word for what to do next is hoʻolohe.
Sources
Definitions verified against the Pukui–Elbert Hawaiian Dictionary (1986) via wehewehe.org and Wehewehe Wikiwiki (lohe: “to hear, mind, obey, listen; to feel, as the tug of a fishing line,” with the attested phrases lohe pono and lohe mai i ke aʻo); Parker’s Hawaiian Dictionary (1922) via wehewehe.org (hoʻolohe: “to cause to hear; to turn the attention; to listen; to regard; to obey”); Andrews’ Hawaiian Dictionary (1865). The proverb Nānā ka maka; hoʻolohe ka pepeiao; paʻa ka waha was collected by Mary Kawena Pukui in ʻŌlelo Noʻeau: Hawaiian Proverbs and Poetical Sayings.