Numbers in Hawaiian: 10 to 10 Million

This page goes with the lesson Numbers, An Introduction (0–10).

Introduction

Learn how numbers are put together in Hawaiian. Don’t try to memorize each number; re-write the numbers and formulas you need to make your own cheat-sheet and understand how they are put together. Make sure you know the basic 0 – 9 first (see the chart at the end of this page if you need a reminder).

Base 10 Numbers

10 — ʻumi

This word is not as ancient as all the rest. We don’t know when it was invented, but it is nevertheless a Hawaiian innovation that predates the late-1700s Western contact of Captain Cook. The original word (in Hawaiian) was «anahulu». Anahulu is still used in a couple of places: one is in the place name Puʻuanahulu (the tenth hill?) and in a 10-night period called an «anahulu». There are three anahulu per moon cycle. I will teach you about the Hawaiian moon calendar some other day.

20 — iwakālua

«Iwakālua» is also a very odd-sounding number and another Hawaiian innovation. I wrote an article about it on oleloonline.com if you want to read more; suffice it to say, it’s just something to memorize and not try to understand how iwa (9) and lua (2) somehow get incorporated to make 20.

The 10’s from 30 to 90

For the 10’s from 30 to 90, just prefix “kana-” to the base number.

100 — haneli or hanele

«Haneli» is a word invented in the 1800s. There was most likely no ancient Hawaiian equivalent. Although we use the modern base-10 system to count these days, I will add a note here about traditional number groupings, so you at least know.

Aside: Traditional Hawaiian Groupings

Example Groups: kauna (4), kaʻau (40), lau (400), mano (4000), … (there are more)

These are Hawaiian group numbers (akin to “dozen” or “score” in English). «Kaʻau» was frequently used to talk about fish caught in community fishing; and «lau» was frequently used to talk about large groups of people, especially warriors. Find «hoʻolauleʻa» and «hoʻolaukanaka» in the dictionary as examples of «lau» in some Hawaiian words you may already know.

Practice all of the above before you go to the next step.

Intermediate Numbers from 10–99: How to Build Numbers Using the Infix “-kūmā-”

It’s best to learn how to build numbers rather than try to just memorize each one.

… and so on.

…and so on until…

Numbers from 100 to 1000

and so on…

Intermediates in the Hundreds

and so on until…

In the Thousands

These work the same as the hundreds.

You made it! Now practice with random numbers from 1 to 10 million!

Also practice as much as possible reading out single digits (0-9) like those in phone numbers, etc.

Number Chart

ʻŌlelo Online Virtual Classroom · kumu Kaliko Beamer-Trapp · Revision 6 (November 2025)