paua
/ˈpɑːwə/
"paua" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“paua” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 4
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Any of several large, edible abalones of New Zealand, especially Haliotis iris, whose shell is used to make jewelry.
Corpus desk
Index EN-paua · paua · English
paua · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "P" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | paua |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpɑːwə/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “paua” in English
Rare enough to double-check
paua is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈpɑːwə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for paua, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Māori pāua. The correct English form is paua, spelled P-A-U-A.
Definition
- 1Any of several large, edible abalones of New Zealand, especially Haliotis iris, whose shell is used to make jewelry.
- 2The shell of this mollusc.
- 3A fish hook made from this shell.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how paua appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
“Hey, we got paua for tea, Himi!” he calls, and comes to the base of the cliff.
Etymology
Borrowed from Māori pāua.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.