Kia ora
Māori-language greeting
Kia ora (Māori pronunciation: [kiˈaɔɾa], approximated in English as kee OR-ə or KYOR-ə) is a Māori-language greeting which has entered New Zealand English. It translates literally as "have life" or "be healthy", wishing the essence of life upon someone, from one speaker to the other. It is used as an informal greeting or farewell equivalent to "hi", "hello", or "goodbye" and can be used as an expression of thanks similar to "cheers". As a greeting of local origin, it is comparable to the term "g'day" (used in Australian and New Zealand English).
Meaning
Kia ora can be used to wish somebody life and health—the word ora used as a noun means "life, health and vitality". It might also be used as a salutation, a farewell or an expression of thanks. It also signifies agreement with a speaker at a meeting, being as it is from a culture that prizes oratory. It is widely used alongside other more formal Māori greetings. The Ministry for Culture and Heritage website NZHistory lists it as one of 100 Māori words every New Zealander should know, and lists the following definition: "Hi!, G'day! (general informal greeting)".
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Kia ora” as māori-language greeting. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q596428. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Kia ora” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.