Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The glottal stop used in the Hawaiian language.
  • noun The symbol (‘) used in writing to represent this glottal stop.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The Hawaiian apostrophe-like letter (ʻ) used to indicate the glottal stop consonant.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Hawaiian ‘okina, separator : ‘oki, to cut off (from Proto-Polynesian koti) + -na, noun suff.]

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Examples

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  • Became an official letter of the Hawaiian alphabet in 1864. This, the glottal stop, is also written ʻokina.

    November 10, 2011