Meaning & use
kahuna
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An expert or highly respected figure in a particular field; in Hawaiian tradition, a priest or skilled practitioner.
See it in a sentence
Everyone deferred to the surf instructor, the resident kahuna of the local beach.
Employees joked that the CEO was the "big kahuna" nobody wanted to disappoint.
A note on using this word
Almost always used in English within the phrase "big kahuna," meaning an important or powerful person, borrowed from Hawaiian.
Words with a similar meaning
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