Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

land of the long white cloud

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.34 in modern English

Syllables: land of the -long white -cloud
IPA

40

Scrabble Score

23

Letters

3

Syllables

14

Unique Chars

Meaning

name

Etymology

Loose calque of Māori Aotearoa, from ao (“cloud, daytime, world”), tea (“white”), and roa (“long, tall”). Allegedly the first English-language mention was in the February, 1916, New Zealand School Journal (King, 2004). Probably a reference to the appearance of mountainous land when seen on the horizon from a canoe after an ocean voyage.

Inflected Forms

the Land of the Long White Cloud (canonical)

Questions

What does land of the long white cloud mean?: New Zealand.
Where does land of the long white cloud come from?: Loose calque of Māori Aotearoa, from ao (“cloud, daytime, world”), tea (“white”), and roa (“long, tall”). Allegedly the first English-language mention was in the February, 1916, New Zealand School Journal (King, 2004). Probably a reference to the appearance of mountainous land when seen on the horizon from a canoe after an ocean voyage.

How to pronounce land of the long white cloud

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