What does whanau mean?
Whānau is a Māori word for family, clan, or an extended group of relatives, especially a group connected through shared ancestry, marriage, or descent. Its scope is often broader than the English “family”: it may include parents, children, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and more distant kin. In some contexts, whānau also means offspring or descendants, while as a verb it means to be born. The word is central in Māori social organization and carries a strong sense of belonging, continuity, collective identity, and responsibility toward relatives. It appears widely in New Zealand public, cultural, educational, and political language, including the expression “whānau ora,” associated with family and community wellbeing. Although fully natural in Māori, it is commonly used in New Zealand English when a speaker wants to emphasize a family or kinship group as a broad collective rather than a household alone.
A family, clan, or extended group of kin; in some contexts, the children or descendants belonging to such a group.
"The whānau maintains a close relationship with its community."
The term commonly denotes a collective and may include extended relatives as well as parents and children.
To be born.
"Kua whānau te tamaiti i te po."
This use is primarily encountered in Māori rather than in ordinary English usage.
The form is normally unchanged in the plural and can also function as a collective noun.
"Their whānau live across Aotearoa New Zealand."
Whānau is bigger than a household: it can encompass parents, children, grandparents, cousins, and the shared bonds that connect them.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of whanau
Whānau is inherited from Proto-Polynesian *fanau, a term associated with children, descendants, and family groups. Recognized cognates include Tongan fānau and Hawaiian hānau, the latter associated with birth and descent. Māori developed a particularly broad sense encompassing both an extended family and its members.
How whanau is actually used
In Māori, the word naturally encompasses a broad network of relatives rather than only a nuclear family. In New Zealand English it retains this collective sense and may sound culturally marked, so “family” is often preferred in formal or general audiences. The macron is conventional in careful Māori and New Zealand usage, although whanau is also widely written without it.