Te Aka is a Māori language dictionary that is easy to use by searching for Māori or English words. It includes the ability to filter search results, and to save definitions to a Favourites list. There are currently over 24,000 Māori headword entries in the database, which is being added to over time. An offline dictionary has also been included when internet connectivity is not available.
As well as English meanings, it has example sentences with translations for many entries. It even has photographs and audio clips for Aotearoa/New Zealand native fauna and photographs of flora, important people and other items where a photograph will aid understanding.
In addition to the words one would expect in a traditional dictionary, it also has encyclopaedic entries designed to provide key information about plants, animals, stars, planets, heavenly bodies, important Māori people, key ancestors of traditional narratives, tribal groups, ancestral canoes, song types, musical instruments, Māori names for institutions, country names, place names and other proper names. There are also detailed explanations of key concepts central to Māori culture. Comprehensive explanations for grammatical items are included, with examples of usage, as are idioms and colloquialisms with their meanings and examples.
The Te Aka Maori app is the companion to the popular www.maoridictionary.co.nz website and forms part of the Te Whanake Māori Language learning series.
As a learner of te reo, I use this app daily. Usually multiple times a day, in fact. It’s helpful as!Two things could make it excellent and earn that fifth star. 1. When you go into the app, it plays a cute animation of a tūī, and then slides the search box into place. You have to wait two seconds for this to complete before you can search for your kupu. Not a big deal at first, but when you use it hundreds or thousands of times, it gets tedious. I want to look up my word quickly. An on/off setting to show the animation or not would allow everyone to be happy. 2. The search is only exact. If you have the spelling off at all, you get no results. Some sort of fuzzy search result like, “I couldn’t find that word. Did you mean…?” with a few choices close to my errant spelling. I mean, sometimes I’m looking something up exactly because I’m unsure of the spelling!
Quick response from the app team and great dictionary
Radia7
The app is one of the best - particularly being able to add words to designated lists for future review and keeping a log of learned vocabulary. It’s simply impressive.
Developer Response
Thanks for your feedback and reporting the bug on the Favourites list!
Tēnā koutou
Tiaki O’Hara
I speak o le faasāmoa right now. Trying to learn Te Reo Māori.
Cook Islands Māori
North-of-the-Notch
I bought this with the hope that it would be useful for my trips to Rarotonga.It would be very!! helpful if you could include in a future version also Cook Islands Māori.
Favourites list bug fix
Version 6.0.8
The developer, TE MURUMARA FOUNDATION, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Linked to You
The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
Usage Data
Diagnostics
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
Seller
TE MURUMARA FOUNDATION
Size
72.8 MB
Category
Education
Compatibility
Requires iOS 11.0 or later.
iPhone Requires iOS 11.0 or later.
iPad Requires iPadOS 11.0 or later.
iPod touch Requires iOS 11.0 or later.
Mac Requires macOS 11.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
