luau
/ˈlu.aʊ/
"luau" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“luau” is uncommon English (frequency #62,285 among 2,297 “L” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #62,285
- frequency rank, English
- 2,297
- “L” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An elaborate Hawaiian feast featuring traditional foods and entertainment.
Corpus desk
Index EN-luau · luau · English
luau · rank #62,285 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #62,285
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,297
- PHOTO-FINISH luff
Nearest frequency peer: luff (+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.
Long-tail ranks near “luau”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Lindstrom
Lindstrom
37,724 corpus weight
- Linklater
Linklater
37,723 corpus weight
- luau
luau
37,716 corpus weight
- luff
luff
37,715 corpus weight
- lunging
lunging
37,714 corpus weight
- maneuverable
maneuverable
37,709 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “luau” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | luau |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈlu.aʊ/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #62,285 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “luau” in English
Rare enough to double-check
luau is uncommon English at frequency #62,285 among 2,297 “L” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈlu.aʊ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "An elaborate Hawaiian feast featuring traditional foods and entertainment.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for luau, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Hawaiian lūʻau. Replaced earlier paina (from pāʻina) and ahaaina (from ʻahaʻaina). The correct English form is luau, spelled L-U-A-U.
Definition
- 1An elaborate Hawaiian feast featuring traditional foods and entertainment.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how luau appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Other Americans and Europeans also made their way into court, drawn by its brilliant pageants and lavish lū‘au, or feasts.
MM: No secrets for him because he's the king of Hawaii. And so he said, "Do you want to come to a luau with Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger and Whoopi Goldberg?"
Etymology
From Hawaiian lūʻau. Replaced earlier paina (from pāʻina) and ahaaina (from ʻahaʻaina).
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "luau", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).