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kipuka

American  
[kee-poo-kah] / kiˈpu kɑ /

noun

  1. (in Hawaii) a tract of land surrounded by recent lava flows.

Etymology

Origin of kipuka

From the Hawaiian word kīpuka

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

If I continued following this road the next day, I thought, I would reach El Malpais’s largest kipuka, an islandlike ecosystem surrounded but untouched by the lava flows — called Hole-in-the-Wall.

From New York Times • Aug. 28, 2014

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.