This is a semantic space dictionary that I’m currently working on. I tried not to read lipamanka’s dictionary while writing this so that I would record my own ideas, but many of the things here have definitely been influenced by what I’ve read from it in the past.
Check out the status page for progress information.
a has two uses: an interjection and an emphatic particle. As an interjection, it’s very broad; it can indicate a pause for thought, a realization when learning something, astonishment at a fact, and more.
a, mi sona ala e ni.
As an emphatic particle, it’s narrower, emphasizing the phrase that it’s placed after or the entire sentence if it’s at the end.
ona li wile a e ilo sin ni.
akesi are creatures that are typically cold to the touch. They normally can survive on land, but many akesi also spend a lot of time in water.
Some akesi are slimy, like frogs and salamanders. Some akesi are scaly, like snakes and alligators. The prototypical akesi is around the size of an open hand, but they can also be super large, like dinosaurs and dragons, or super small, like newts and nano-chameleons.
Many akesi stay close to the ground when moving rather than walking upright, and pretty much all akesi lay eggs.
Like other animal words, akesi is a folk taxonomic term, not a scientific one; tadpoles are often described as kala that will become akesi rather than akesi outright.
ala refers to nothing.
ona li lukin e ala.
As a modifier, it either negates a predicate or specifies that there are none of something.
mi moku ala a.
When used as a modifier on a noun, it normally indicates that there aren’t any of that noun involved.
jan ala li lon tomo ni.
Some speakers claim to use phrases like jan ala to refer to “non-human things” rather than “no people.”
alasa refers to searching and attempting.
mi alasa e ilo open mi.
mi alasa lukin e waso.
ale refers to everything.
ale is most commonly used as a modifier that refers to all instances of a noun. ma ale refers to everywhere, jan ale refers to everyone, and ijo ale refers to everything.
When used as a noun, ale may refer to a whole of something.
mi lukin e ale lipu.
This isn’t to be confused with ale as a modifier referring to all books.
mi lukin e lipu ale.
Modifying an adjective with ale describes the extent to which that adjective applies.
nasin sewi li ken pona, taso nasin ala li pona ale.
anpa refers to lowness, and the anpa of something is the area and stuff below it; to be lon anpa supa is to be below a table, and to be lon tomo anpa is to be in a basement.
anpa soweli li seli tawa luka!
Toki Pona draws a conceptual metaphor between physical lowness and lowness in status or ranking. If I win a race, I anpa e the other contestants. In a capitalist society, the workers in a company are anpa to the capitalist.
ante describes differences. This can refer to the difference between two objects or a change within in the same object.
sike tu ni la ona li kama ante a.
ante can refer to the particular qualities that have changed or the act of the changing itself.
ante toki li wile e sona mute.
ijo li kama ante, taso mi sona ala e ni: ante li seme?
awen is about fixedness and stability. This can mean physically fixed; if I’m standing or sitting in place, then I’m awen. It can also mean fixed in a particular state. If I’m currently writing a book, wanting to awen doing so means continuing to write.
awen may refer to protection. Billionaires tend to awen e the system that allowed them to gain their wealth. The walls of a city awen e the city, and people tend to want to awen e their friends.
esun deals with exchange. This includes commerce. A tomo esun is a place for exchange, like a store.
mi esun e moku lon open suno.
Exchange is not limited to interpersonal trading. When breathing, a person esun e kon around them for oxygen.
Some speakers use tenpo esun to refer to weeks, as the cycle of commerce revolves around weekdays and weekends.
ijo may refer to anything.
mi moku e ijo.
ijo universally describes things, ideas, and phenomena. Some speakers will also use it to refer to any kind of action.
mi ijo wile lon poka ona.
An ilo is something used to accomplish something else. A spoon is an ilo because it’s typically used to scoop up food. A phone is ilo because it’s used to communicate (among many other things).
ilo mi li wile e wawa a.
The internet and certain platforms on the internet are often referred to with ilo.
kulupu li lon ilo Siko.
mi toki tawa ona lon ilo taso.
insa refers to the middle or innards of something. Being lon insa tomo is to be on the inside of a room or house.
insa pimeja la kalama li pakala e lape mi.
insa may refer to a conceptual middle as well as a physical one.
pilin pona en pilin ike la mi lon insa.
kala describes creatures that swim and primarily live in the water. The prototypical kala is a fish, but tadpoles and belugas are also kala.
Some speakers will use kala to refer to beings that are currently in water; if I’m swimming, I could be kala.
Anything that can be heard is kalama, including music, white noise, the honk of a car horn, or a school bell.
kama refers to arrival. Toki Pona draws a conceptual metaphor between arrival at a location and arrival at a state.
mi kama lon tomo.
Just as I can kama into a room, I can also kama being red, or kama eating my food. In this sense, kama refers to becoming a certain way or beginning an action.
ona li kama pona la mi kepeken.
mi kama moku e kasi.
Beginning to do something and becoming a certain way are two sides of the same coin. English uses “begin” when the state is a verb and “become” when the state is an adjective. In Toki Pona, these are both described with kama.
kama may also refer to something that is “to come”; that is, something in the future.
toki kama li pona nanpa wan tawa mi.
tenpo kama la ma ale li kama pakala.
kasi refers to plants and things resembling plants. This includes trees, shrubs, herbs, cacti, vines, grasses, and more.
Some speakers will use kasi to refer to the edible leaves and stems rather than kili, like spinach, lettuce, and asparagus.
For some speakers, kasi includes fungi and mushrooms; they resemble plants in being immobile life forms that grow in many of the same conditions that plants do. To other speakers, fungi are vastly different from plants and don’t belong in the same conceptual category; these speakers often use soko to describe fungi instead.
ken talks about possibility, ability, and permission. If something is ken, then it’s possible or allowed. If I ken e an action, I’m allowing it or otherwise making it possible.
kili refers to the edible part of a plant, including fruits and vegetables like cranberries, beans, carrots, and durian.
Some speakers only use kili to refer to edible parts with substantial volume, like tubers, fruits, and some seeds. Others will also use kili to refer to edible leaves and stems like lettuce, celery, and spinach. Others will use kasi to describe these parts of a plant instead.
Some speakers will use kili to refer to edible fungi, especially those with more volume like portobello mushrooms, even if they use soko to describe fungi more generally.
ko refers to relatively homogeneous substances that are somewhere between a complete solid and a liquid.
Particularly viscous liquids like honey and dipping sauce are ko, and a bunch of small solids put together like sand and dust are ko. Solids that are easily deformed like clay and play dough are also often referred to as ko.
kon refers to gases as well as some kinds of invisible things.
A cloud is a kind of kon, since it’s a mass of gas in the sky. A ghost is different kind of kon, an invisible agent.
kon is often used to refer to the essence of something. In particular, it may refer to the meaning of a word.
nimi ‘lipu’ la kon tu li lon.
la is a grammatical “context-marking” particle. But context includes a lot of different things!
A noun placed before la indicates that that noun is somehow involved in the sentence. It could describe a location, a topic, or just serve to change the word order.
tomo suli la jan li toki open.
mi la waso sina li suwi nanpa wan.
kili loje la jan Sopi li moku e ona ale.
Notice that the first two situations, saying lon tomo suli and tawa mi at the end of the sentence would mean the same thing. Placing something before la is very generic and may encompass the meaning of all prepositions.
An adjective placed before la describes the whole sentence.
ken la nasin ni li pona ala.
pona la mi sona e ni lon tenpo pini.
A complete clause can be placed before la as a reference to the time or cause of the main clause.
mi wawa lili tan pali la mi lape.
sina weka la mi pilin ike.
Multiple la may be used in sequence. In these situations, it functions like ‘then’ in English.
mi seli e telo
la ona li kama kon li tawa lon lupa
la ona li kama lete
la sin la kon li kama telo li tawa anpa lon poki ante
la telo sin la jaki ala li lon.
Because of this, many speakers will use la at the beginning of a sentence as a “continuation” of a previous speaker’s sentence.
mi wile lape a… / la o lape!
lape refers to low energy states, typically sleeping. A nap in the middle of a day is lape.
A typical five-day work week has two suno lape. After returning from a months-long trip abroad, you might want to lape for a few days.
The prototypical lawa is the head of an animal. More generally, lawa describes control, typically the part of a whole that controls the rest of it. That includes sets of rules, a restaurant manager, the mind of a creature, or a nation’s government.
The prototypical lipu is a sheet of paper that records some information. As for physical properties, lipu refers to flat, bendable objects, like sheets of paper, leaves, and pancakes.
lipu mute a li tawa anpa tan kasi.
More abstractly, lipu also refers to documents that record information, like books, blog posts, and academic articles. It’s a common headnoun for websites, as in lipu Kemeka.
suno ale la mi lipu e pali mi.
lukin refers to sight and also to eyes.
moku refers to consumption. This includes both eating and drinking.
mi moku e kili e telo.
Typically, moku means that the thing being eaten eventually becomes part of the thing eating in some sense. A lunch box doesn’t moku e the rice in it because we normally don’t frame the rice as part of the box itself, but a phone might moku e power because it’s framed as more integral to the device.
mun refers to celestial objects. The prototypical celestial object is the moon, but mun can refer to all sorts of objects like stars and planets.
mun suli luka tu tu li tawa sike lon suno mi.
mun also refers to months. This metaphor has 460 realizations cross-linguistically, making it the most common one in DatSemShift 3.0.
suno olin li lon mun nanpa tu.
Like with suno, speakers may say tenpo mun to emphasize the aspect of time if necessary.
mute talks about quantities. If something is mute, it is numerous; jan mute refers to “many people.”
jan pi mute seme li lon?
As a noun, it refers to quantities; mute jan refers to a “quantity of people.”
mute jan li lili.
n exclusively appears as a standalone interjection which indicates hesitation. Unlike a, n does not appear as a modifier within a sentence.
nanpa describes numbers. This is not to be confused with mute, which describes quantities! A zip code, a phone number, my placement in a game of Mario Party, and a chess Elo are nanpa, but the number of birds in a field is a mute.
nanpa can describe some fields of math like high school algebra and number theory, although it might not describe other fields like set theory and topology very well.
With nasin, Toki Pona draws a conceptual metaphor between paths, directions, methods, and systems of methods.
Physically, nasin can refer to paths like sidewalks, train tracks, roads, and rivers. If I point anywhere, the direction in which I’m pointing is a nasin.
Instructions to assembly IKEA furniture are nasin. Ways of life like veganism and Islam are nasin, as well as systems like the grammar of a language and socialism.
pali refers to work and creation. When pali refers to work, it doesn’t necessarily imply a concrete end product. It may also refer to routine work, like a job.
tenpo pali li pini la mi lukin e sitelen lon lipu Jutu.
Many speakers will use use intransitive pali to refer to generic “doing” actions.
jan li ken wile pali pona li pali ike lon tenpo sama.
Note that this usage does not cover all usages of “do”; describing “doing the dishes” would probably not involve pali except to emphasize the aspect of it being a particular task that requires work.
pana refers to giving and emission. This can be in a physical sense,
mi pana e sike tawa ona.
kasi ni li pana e kon suwi.
or in a metaphorical sense, like “imparting.”
mi wile pana e sona tawa jan ante.
pilin refers to senses, both internal and external. When referring to external senses, it typically refers everything that’s not lukin or kute, including touch, smell, and taste.
selo soweli li suwi tawa pilin.
mi wile ala pilin e kon pi ijo ni a.
The internal sense of pilin refers to emotions and opinions.
mi lape pona ala la pilin mi li kama nasa li kama ike.
pilin mi la jan o moku ala e soweli.
pimeja refers to darker colors, like black, dark blue, purple, brown, and gray. Read more about color words in the guide to color terms!
In addition to referring to dark colors, pimeja often also refers to the night.
pimeja pini la mi lape ike.
Like other words associated with time, tenpo pimeja may be used if this is unclear.
pini is about endings, both physical,
linja pi len noka mi la pini li pakala.
and temporal.
tenpo musi li pini la mi o weka e jaki.
The temporal meaning extends to refer to the past in general.
lipu pini li pona a tawa lipu ni
tenpo pini la ona li moku e soweli.
pini is also used to describe closed lupa and poki.
tomo ni li pini la mi sona ala e ijo insa.
poki are containers for things. As physical containers, they typically contain inanimate things. Drawers, cups, and chests are some typical kinds of poki.
sina wile kama la o poki e ijo sina.
poki also refers to more abstract containers and categories. Roles in Discord servers are often referred to ask poki because they’re a kind of category that a user can belong to.
In contrast with tomo, a poki is generally something that you put stuff in, and a tomo is generally something that you enter yourself. For instance, a jailer may frame a jail as a poki for people.
seli refers to fire and hot things.
sewi deals with things that are high up, like the sky. It can be used to refer to the space above an object.
sike jelo li lon sewi pi lawa ona.
sin refers to novelty and repetition. Both of these senses correspond to a new instance of some phenomenon in a pre-existing category of things.
mi o pali sin e ni.
In this case, there has already been some pali, but we need to perform a new instance of that work. sin describes the repetition of the task.
sona pi tawa ijo la jan Neton li pali e nasin sin.
Here, certain kinds of nasin already exist, but Newton creates yet another one. sin describes the novelty of Newton’s system.
Generally, sin means new when describing an object and anew when describing an action.
sitelen refers to depictions of things; the prototypical sitelen is a drawing on a flat surface. Paintings, videos, and sculptures are all sitelen. In a museum, a recreation of a buddhist sculpture is a sitelen of that original sculpture.
When using sitelen to refer to writing, it typically refers to the shapes and forms of the writing, not necessarily the content.
soweli refers to warm creatures.
suno refers to light and some sources of light. The prototypical suno is the sun.
tomo ni la suno tu li lon.
suno also refers to days. This is one of the most common cross-linguistic metaphors, with 412 realizations in DatSemShift 3.0.
suno tu la mi lon ma Putape.
Speakers will sometimes say tenpo suno to disambiguate this usage or emphasize the aspect of time.
supa refers to flat, horizontal surfaces like tables, shelves, beds, floors, ceilings, and roofs.
ona li pana e poki tu wan tawa supa.
tawa describes motion. As a preposition, it describes motion towards a particular destination.
mi tawa ma Pelin li awen lon suno luka luka.
As a preposition, tawa may indicate not only a physical destination but also a recipient, beneficiary, or point of view of something.
mi alasa e sona sin lon ilo wawa tawa pona pi ma mi.
ona li wile awen e nasin ni, taso ona li ike a tawa mi.
tomo refers to enclosed spaces, primarily ones that house living things. This can be a building or a room within that building. tomo are not necessarily stationary; trains and automobiles are enclosed spaces for people, so they’re often described as tomo.
walo describes light colors, most notably white but also light blue, pastel pink, and more.
Read more about colors in the guide to color words!
waso refers to creatures that can fly in the air. Bats and most birds are waso.
Some speakers will use waso to describe flightless birds like kiwis and emus, but it’s also common to use soweli to refer to these animals. Kiwis are interesting because they have the shape of a prototypical waso but aren’t able to fly.
waso is also often used to describe airplanes and the act of flying.
sina kama waso lon tenpo seme?
Some speakers will extend this meaning to other things that travel through the air like frisbees.
wawa refers to strength, energy, and intensity. A coffee could be telo wawa because it energizes the drinker. Something with an intense taste is wawa to the mouth, and a bright object emits a suno wawa.
ilo mi li wawa ale.
Today, wawa is often used as an adjective like “awesome” in English and as an interjection meaning the same thing.
weka describes both distance and absence. If something is weka, it’s far away or removed.
tomo ona li weka seme?
mi weka e nimi ni tan lipu.
weka may refer to temporal distance in additional to physical distance.
tenpo weka la kiwen ni li lon ala ma.
wile is about desires and requirements. With an animate subject, a wile is typically a desire.
mi wile e moku suwi.
With inanimate subjects, wile typically becomes a requirement.
pali ni li wile e tenpo mute.
wile only translates well as ‘need’ when the need and the desire are associated with each other. For instance, I need water, and if I become thirsty, the need for water becomes a desire for water, so mi wile e telo. If I need to work for money but dislike my job, it wouldn’t be accurate to say mi wile pali mani.
When the need of a subject is not connected to a desire, speakers often change the subject of wile to refer to something whose wile lines up with the need.
sijelo mi li wile e lape.
My body requires sleep.
In other cases, o is used instead.