How to Use kahuna in a Sentence

kahuna

noun
  • Then White caught the big kahuna.
    — Sean Gregory, Time, 26 May 2026
  • The China tariff deal—not yet done—is the big kahuna in all of this.
    — Jim Edwards, Fortune, 5 Aug. 2025
  • Buium is the big kahuna of the Hughes return.
    — Harman Dayal, New York Times, 24 Dec. 2025
  • And the big kahuna of them all, the Oscars, are just around the corner.
    — Lester Fabian Brathwaite, EW.com, 22 Dec. 2021
  • As the story goes, the Lanai kahuna burned everything to keep his fire alight.
    — Jackie Burrell, Orange County Register, 2 Feb. 2017
  • And Intel, the big chip kahuna, isn’t sitting idly by either.
    — Robert Hackett, Fortune, 10 Mar. 2018
  • The second is whether Neymar himself is willing to be just one of the troops rather than the big kahuna.
    — Jack Lang, New York Times, 19 May 2026
  • While there are other area codes that service Houston, 713 will always be the big kahuna around these parts.
    — Sonia Ramirez, Houston Chronicle, 13 July 2020
  • While there are other area codes that service Houston, 713 will always be the big kahuna around these parts.
    — Sonia Ramirez, Chron, 12 July 2021
  • The locals know it as the sacred place where ancient kahuna po'o (high priests) meditated and received wisdom.
    — Sunny Fitzgerald, Travel + Leisure, 18 Jan. 2026
  • The orphan sounded the alarm as soon as the apparition materialized, just as the kahuna had instructed.
    — Alia Wong, The Atlantic, 9 Dec. 2019
  • But EnCharge is entering a competitive field, and among the competitors is the big kahuna, Nvidia.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 2 June 2025
  • The big kahuna obviously is Walton, a walking, talking eccentric who specializes in throwing out a non sequitur or two during the heat of a game.
    — Paul Sullivan, chicagotribune.com, 14 Aug. 2019
  • But the universal charitable deduction is probably the big kahuna among the tax policy issues.
    — Tax Notes Staff, Forbes, 27 Apr. 2021
  • But the big kahuna is still to come, as the company finally confirmed that the Supra is officially getting a manual transmission.
    — Joey Capparella, Car and Driver, 15 Apr. 2022
  • But the big kahuna is $436 billion for state, local, territorial and tribal governments.
    — The Editorial Board, WSJ, 29 Sep. 2020
  • Amazon’s speed of delivery can feel like magic sometimes, but the severe Texas freeze has kept even the big kahuna of disruptors from operating in some of its biggest markets.
    — Maria Halkias, Dallas News, 18 Feb. 2021
  • The local health care community is bracing for what Providence, the big kahuna of local hospital operators, will do.
    — oregonlive, 8 May 2020
  • The big kahuna of beer festivals in Oregon, and among the largest in the country, the Oregon Brewers Festivals is a must-visit for any beer lover.
    — Samantha Bakall | The Oregonian/oregonlive, OregonLive.com, 17 Jan. 2018
  • The big kahuna of hotels here is Ocean Edge Resort, a historic Victorian mansion on a bluff overlooking the scenic Cape Cod Bay.
    — Kira Turnbull, Travel + Leisure, 6 June 2026
  • As an inside joke, Keōua’s kahuna, whose tongue Ka’iana rips out of his mouth in front of Keōua during the hectic battle, is played by Kahoʻokahi Kanuha, Momoa’s ʻŌlelo Hawai’i coach.
    — Max Gao, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'kahuna.' 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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