haka
/ˈhɑːkə/
"haka" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“haka” is uncommon English (frequency #54,220 among 23,837 “H” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #54,220
- frequency rank, English
- 23,837
- “H” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A group dance of New Zealand's Māori people featuring rhythmic chanting, vigorous facial and arm movements, and foot stamping. Traditionally a war dance, today it is also performed to welcome guest...
Corpus desk
Index EN-haka · haka · English
haka · rank #54,220 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #54,220
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 23,837
- PHOTO-FINISH Haag
Nearest frequency peer: Haag (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “haka”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- gundy
gundy
45,784 corpus weight
- Gwangju
Gwangju
45,783 corpus weight
- Haag
Haag
45,782 corpus weight
- haka
haka
45,781 corpus weight
- Halford
Halford
45,780 corpus weight
- Haverford
Haverford
45,778 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “haka” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | haka |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈhɑːkə/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #54,220 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “haka” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
haka is uncommon English at frequency #54,220 among 23,837 “H” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈhɑːkə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A group dance of New Zealand's Māori people featuring rhythmic chanting, vigorous facial and arm movements, and foot stamping. Traditionally a war dance, today it is also performed to welcome guest...".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for haka, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Māori haka, from Proto-Polynesian *saka, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *sakaŋ. The word is cognate with Hawaiian haʻa (“dance”), Mangarevan ʻaka (“to perform a traditional dance; a usually warlike dance accompanied by a chant”), Rarotongan ʻaka… The correct English form is haka, spelled H-A-K-A.
Definition
- 1A group dance of New Zealand's Māori people featuring rhythmic chanting, vigorous facial and arm movements, and foot stamping. Traditionally a war dance, today it is also performed to welcome guests, as a mark of respect at occasions such as commemorations and funerals, as a challenge to opposing teams at sports events, and for artistic purposes.
Etymology
Borrowed from Māori haka, from Proto-Polynesian *saka, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *sakaŋ. The word is cognate with Hawaiian haʻa (“dance”), Mangarevan ʻaka (“to perform a traditional dance; a usually warlike dance accompanied by a chant”), Rarotongan ʻaka (“dance”), Samoan saʻa (“dance”), Tokelauan haka (“dance”), Tongan haka (“hand action made while singing”).
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "haka", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.