How to Use Maori in a Sentence

Maori

noun
  • Bennett’s thriller dives deep into Maori culture and gives voice to its complex characters.
    — Staff, The Christian Science Monitor, 2024-05-22
  • Tupe, one of the Maori competitors, won a silver medal in wellness massage, and the whole group sang a victory chant.
    — Sarah Larson, New Yorker, 8 Sep. 2025
  • It’s been used for centuries by the Maori as a natural and effective remedy to treat everything from wounds to sore throats.
    — Mélanie Defouilloy, Vogue, 2024-06-26
  • Several tours are given by Maori guides, who view whales as magnificent creatures and ancestors.
    — Catherine Garcia, theweek, 2024-11-25
  • It’s said to be an integral symbol of New Zealand Maori art that symbolizes new life and new beginnings.
    — Howard Walker, Robb Report, 2024-09-09
  • Commonly featured in Maori stories, tuatara may signify knowledge or warn of a coming calamity.
    — Elizabeth Preston, Scientific American, 16 Dec. 2025
  • The Maori King or Queen is considered the paramount chief of several tribes, or iwi, but is not affiliated with all of them.
    — Reuters, CNN, 2024-09-05
  • Proving, once again, that penguins are beloved by animators all over the world, the duo was also excited to explore New Zealand and the Maori culture.
    — Marta Balaga, Variety, 2023-06-14
  • The haka is a ceremonial Maori chanting dance of defiance that is a cherished cultural symbol of New Zealand.
    — Matt Lavietes, NBC news, 14 Sep. 2025
  • These findings are based on a careful study of the oral histories of the Maori and other related cultures, which describe encounters with a land to the south that probably was Antarctica.
    — Stephen C. George, Discover Magazine, 2023-09-27
  • The Rotorua area is home to a living village and an arts and crafts institute that continues the artistic practices of the Maori, with offerings like traditional wood carving and weaving.
    — Evie Carrick, Travel + Leisure, 23 Nov. 2025
  • The trip continues with tea ceremonies, wine tastings, Maori cultural immersions, and a slew of stays at 4- and 5-star hotels up and down both North and South Islands.
    — Brad Japhe, Condé Nast Traveler, 2024-10-22
  • Tuatara are also culturally significant to the Maori, the Indigenous people of New Zealand.
    — Elizabeth Preston, Scientific American, 16 Dec. 2025
  • Where The Convert does excel is in its treatment of the Maori characters, even the most barbaric of whom are afforded dimensions mostly lacking in their British counterparts.
    — Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter, 2024-07-11
  • The interpretation of clauses in the document still guides legislation and policy today, with rulings by the courts and a separate Maori tribunal expanding Maori rights and privileges over the decades.
    — Reuters, NBC News, 2024-11-19
  • The idea of developing a national Maori flag first arose in the 1980s, inspired by the use of the Aboriginal flag in Australia, also as part of an Indigenous protest movement.
    — Rachel Pannett, Washington Post, 2023-07-20
  • As Simeon and Tupe engaged in soothing effleurage and loudly vigorous tapotement, respectively, six Maori women surrounded their tables and sang folk songs in harmony, guided by an elder in the audience with a long, gnarled cane.
    — Sarah Larson, New Yorker, 8 Sep. 2025
  • New Zealand, then known as the Gal Blacks, had been granted permission from Maori elders to perform the haka, the ceremonial war dance that features chanting, stamping and facial gestures such as pukana (bulging eyes) and whetero (sticking out the tongue).
    — Peter Carline, New York Times, 21 Aug. 2025
  • Advocates of Maori in New Zealand and of Hawaiian have emphasized the importance of inculcating these languages in early childhood development and education as part of their successful revival.
    — Ross Perlin, Foreign Affairs, 2024-04-23
  • At stations five and eight, Rita Tupe, an older woman with tattoos on her lips and chin, and Harata Simeon stood with their peers—a group of practitioners of rongoā, traditional Maori healing, who had travelled from New Zealand.
    — Sarah Larson, New Yorker, 8 Sep. 2025
  • Maori iwi leaders, including the Te Pou Tupua, or the human spokespersons for the Whanganui came to Phoenix to meet with Arizona tribal leaders in 2023 to continue the intertribal dialog on how best to protect and preserve water and the waterways that rivers sustain.
    — Shaun McKinnon, AZCentral.com, 14 Oct. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'Maori.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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