Mauna Kea

[ mou-nuh key-uh, maw-nuh kee-uh ]

noun

1. a dormant volcano on the Island of Hawaii: one of the five shield volcanoes that form the island, and the highest point in the state of Hawaii. 13,803 feet (4,207 meters).

Mauna Kea

/ ˈmaʊnɑː ˈkeɪɑː /

noun

1. an extinct volcano in Hawaii, on N central Hawaii island: the highest island mountain in the world. Height: 4206 m (13 799 ft)

Word History and Origins

Origin of Mauna Kea¹

First recorded in 1880–85; from Hawaiian, literally “White Mountain”

Example Sentences

Caltech has retired a telescope atop the summit of Hawaii’s Mauna Kea following a cultural sea change in how people view land development on revered landmarks.

From Los Angeles Times

Kanaka elders have insisted that no more telescopes be built on Mauna Kea, which Native Hawaiians consider to be ancestral and sacred.

From Salon

The two projects are the Giant Magellan Telescope at Las Campanas in Chile and the Thirty Meter Telescope, possibly destined for Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii, also known as the Big Island.

From New York Times

A camera at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii has captured an object as it burned up on re-entering Earth's atmosphere on 8 February.

From BBC

Keck Observatory on Hawaii's Mauna Kea, they could detect slight variations in stellar motion via the redshift and blueshift of the Doppler effect -- which helped them determine planetary mass readings of unprecedented precision.

From Science Daily