aloha means expressing good wishes when greeting or parting from someone; hello; goodbye.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, aloha ranks #7,180 of 14,444 for Most Exacting Words.
aloha is pronounced /əˈləʊ.(h)ə/.
Why “aloha” is a great word
A Hawaiian greeting or farewell expressing love, affection, peace, and compassion, from Hawaiian *aloha* (“love, affection, pity”), first attested in English in 1825. Unlike a casual “hello” or a final “goodbye,” *aloha* is a spiritual transfer of mutual humanity: the shared breath in a gentle press of foreheads, the flower lei placed over a stranger’s shoulders, and the lingering wave from a shore that holds you in its heart—a single word that contains the entire arc of an encounter, insisting that every meeting preserves the warmth of its own parting.
Etymology
Most seem to be from Hawaiian aloha (“love”).
intj
- Expressing good wishes when greeting or parting from someone; hello; goodbye.
name
- A place in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Grant Parish, Louisiana.
- A place in the United States:; A township and unincorporated community therein, in Cheboygan County, Michigan.
- A place in the United States:; A census-designated place in Washington County, Oregon.
- A place in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Grays Harbor County, Washington.
- ALOHAnet (an early computer networking system).
noun
- Good wishes, love, compassion, peacefulness and affection.“When I got back to Hawaii, a feeling of aloha flooded me, and my anxiety vanished.”
- An utterance of aloha (see Interjection, below).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- aroha 88% match — Love and compassion. vs aloha →
- ohana 84% match — An extended Hawaiian family unit. vs aloha →
- shaka 83% match — A greeting gesture in which the thumb and little finger are extended while curling the three middle fingers in a semi-fist, used to express a variety of positive meanings including all right, hello and goodbye. vs aloha →
- namaste 83% match — A greeting in contexts relating to Indian culture or the New Age movement. vs aloha →
- shalom 83% match — A traditional Jewish greeting or farewell. vs aloha →
- kupuna 82% match — A grandparent or elder. vs aloha →
- farewell 82% match — A wish of happiness or safety at parting, especially a permanent departure. vs aloha →
- maitri 81% match — Benevolence, lovingkindness or compassion, especially if developed through meditation or mindfulness. vs aloha →