For iPhone, iPad & Android
Every Tongan word,in your pocket.
The most complete digital record of the Tongan language: 37,428 entries, hand-transcribed from C. Maxwell Churchward’s 1959 dictionary. Whether you grew up hearing Tongan at home and want to understand more of it, or you’re learning the language for the first time, it’s here whenever you need it.
- entries
- 37,000+entriesTongan and English
- definitions
- 43,000+definitionsacross both directions
- cross-references
- 63,000+cross-referencestap to follow
Search
Searching made easy
Tongan spelling is hard to get exactly right, especially on a phone keyboard. You don’t have to. Type it the way it sounds and the app finds the word you meant.
You type
You get
fā’ele
intransitive verb— to give birth, to be delivered of a child.
Type it how it sounds
Macrons and glottal stops are awkward on a phone keyboard, so you never have to type them. “faele” finds “fā’ele”.
Look either way
Search Tongan to find the English, or English to find the Tongan. Both directions, same box.
Search inside the definitions
Can’t remember the word? Describe it. The app looks through every definition, not just the headwords.
Reading
Room to read, on phone or tablet
On a phone you get one word at a time, full width. On a tablet the word list sits beside the definition — so following a cross-reference never loses your place in the list.
Ma’u ia he taimí ni
Get it now — on iPhone, iPad and Android.
Questions
Frequently asked
Do I have to type macrons and glottal stops?
No. Type it the way it sounds and the app finds the word. “faele” finds “fā’ele”, “ngaue” finds “ngāue”. You never need a special keyboard — though if you do type them, that works too.
Which dictionary is this based on?
C. Maxwell Churchward’s Tongan-English dictionary of 1959, hand-transcribed entry by entry. It is an ongoing effort — corrections and refinements ship regularly, and you can report a mistake from inside any entry.
Are words listed in proper Tongan order?
Yes. Tongan has 17 letters: “ng” is a single letter that belongs between n and o, and the glottal stop comes last. The app follows the real alphabet, so words sit where you would look for them. Most software gets this wrong.
Does it work on iPad and Android tablets?
Yes. On a larger screen the word list sits beside the definition, so tapping a cross-reference swaps the definition without losing your place in the list.
I found a mistake. How do I report it?
Every entry has a “Report an issue” link at the bottom. It takes a category and a short description and sends it with the entry reference attached, so the correction can be made against the right word.