List of Toki Pona words

This is a list of words in Toki Pona, a philosophical artistic constructed language created by Sonja Lang. These common words are always written in lowercase; capital letters are used only for proper names, such as the names of people.^[1][2]

A few Toki Pona words are grammatical particles that are required to indicate sentence structure. The rest are content words with broad lexical meanings. Content words do not fall into well defined parts of speech; rather, they may be used generally as nouns, verbs, modifiers, or interjections depending on context or their position in a phrase. For example, ona li moku may mean "they ate" or "it is food".^[1]

One of the language's main goals is a focus on minimalism. It is designed to express maximal meaning with minimal complexity.^[2] Like a pidgin, it focuses on simple concepts and elements that are near-universal among cultures. It has a minimal vocabulary and 14 phonemes devised to be easy to pronounce for speakers of various language backgrounds.^[3][1][4][5]

History

Sonja Lang first published Toki Pona online as a draft in 2001 with 118 words. As she developed the language from 2001 to 2014, the word count fluctuated around 120 words from 118 to 123 as Lang replaced, removed, and added words^[6]. In 2014, Lang published Toki Pona: The Language of Good, presenting Toki Pona in its "completed form" with 120 words and 3 synonyms (referred to as nimi pu)^[5]. In 2021, Lang published Toki Pona Dictionary based on surveys conducted in a Discord server. The dictionary adds an additional 17 words to the previous 120 for a total of 137 "essential" words (referred to as nimi ku suli), and it also lists a number of words that appeared less frequently in the surveys (referred to as nimi ku pi suli ala or nimi ku lili), including words created by the community^[7]. Since the publication of Toki Pona Dictionary, community members have conducted larger-scale surveys to further evaluate word usage.

List of words

nimi pu

This list includes words published in Toki Pona: The Language of Good.

Toki Pona word	English meaning	Sitelen Pona	Sitelen Sitelen
a	(interjection)
akesi	lizard or reptile
ala	no, not, zero
alasa	hunt
ale	all, 100
ali[a]
anpa	down, lowly
ante	different, other
anu	or
awen	enduring, wait, continue
e	direct object marker
en	and (only used between multiple subjects)
esun	market, trade
ijo	thing, object, matter
ike	bad, superfluous
ilo	tool, device
insa	inside, stomach
jaki	dirty, disgusting
jan	person, human
jelo	yellow, light green
jo	have, hold
kala	fish, sea creature
kalama	sound, noise, recite
kama	come, become
kasi	plant
ken	can, possible
kepeken	using
kili	fruit, vegetable
kiwen	hard, solid, stone
ko	paste, powder
kon	air, spirit
kule	color, painted
kulupu	group, community
kute	ear, hear, listen, obey
la	(context phrase marker)
lape	sleep, rest
laso	blue, green
lawa	head, mind, control, lead
len	cloth, clothing, cover, privacy
lete	cold, cool, raw
li	(predicate marker)
lili	small, little, young
linja	line, string, hair
lipu	flat object, paper, document
loje	red
lon	at, in, on, real, true, exist
luka	hand, arm, five
lukin	eye, see, look at, try
lupa	hole, door, orifice, window
ma	land, earth, country
mama	parent, ancestor, creator, caretaker
mani	money, wealth, cattle
meli	woman, female, feminine, wife
mi	I, me, we, us
mije	man, male, masculine, husband
moku	eat, consume, food
moli	dead, die, death, kill
monsi	back, rear
mu	animal onomatopoeia (moo, meow, etc.)
mun	moon, night sky object
musi	fun, playing, game, recreation, art, entertainment
mute	many, very, much, several, a lot, abundant, numerous, more
nanpa	number, ordinal indicator
nasa	strange, silly, drunk, (nonstandard, proscribed) foolish, crazy
nasin	way, manner, custom, road, path, doctrine, system, method
nena	bump, hill, mountain, button, nose
ni	this, that
nimi	word, name
noka	leg, foot, organ of locomotion; base
o	O! (vocative or imperative)
olin	love, respect
ona	he, she, it, they
open	open, begin
pakala	blunder, accident, mistake, destruction, damage, break
pali	make, activity, work, deed, project
palisa	long hard object (e.g. rod, stick, branch)
pan	grain, cereal, bread, pasta
pana	give, put, send, place, release, emit
pi	(modifier phrase marker)
pilin	feelings, emotion, heart
pimeja	black, dark, shadow
pini	end, finish, stop, past
pipi	bug, insect
poka	side, hip, next to, vicinity
poki	container, box, bowl
pona	good, simple, useful
pu	relating to Toki Pona: The Language of Good
sama	same, similar, equal, like
seli	fire, warmth, heat
selo	outside, surface, skin, boundary
seme	what, which
sewi	high, up, above, sacred
sijelo	body, physical state, torso
sike	circle, wheel, ball, year
sin	new, fresh, another
sina	you
sinpin	front, wall, chest, face
sitelen	picture, image, write, draw
sona	know, information, wisdom
soweli	animal, (especially) land mammal
suli	big, tall, long, important, adult
suno	sun, light
supa	horizontal supporting surface, platform, furniture, table, chair
suwi	sweet, cute, sugar
tan	from, because of, cause
taso	but, only
tawa	to, for, move, go
telo	water, liquid, wet, wash, beverage
tenpo	time, moment, period, situation
toki	say, speech, language
tomo	house, building, room
tu	two, halve
unpa	sex, sexual
uta	mouth, lips, jaw, oral
utala	conflict, battle, fight, compete
walo	white, light-colored
wan	one, unique, unite
waso	bird, winged animal
wawa	strong, power, energy
weka	away, absent, missing
wile	want, need, desire, must

nimi ku suli

This list includes additional words described as "important" in Toki Pona Dictionary.

Toki Pona word	English meaning	Sitelen Pona	Sitelen Sitelen
namako	extra, additional, spice, season, embellish
kin	also, too
oko	eye
kipisi	cut, divide, part
leko	block, square
monsuta	monster, fear, danger, scary
tonsi	non-binary, transgender
jasima	(uncommon) reflection, mirror
kijetesantakalu	(humorous) raccoon
soko	mushroom, fungus
meso	average, medium
epiku	(humorous) epic
kokosila	(uncommon, humorous) speak another language when Toki Pona would be more appropriate
lanpan	grab, seize, steal
n	um, hmm
misikeke	medicine, cure
ku	relating to Toki Pona Dictionary

Other words

Words not listed above are considered deprecated or obscure. For lists of less common words, see Appendix:Toki Pona#Other words on Wiktionary.

See also

• Toki Pona
• Toki Pona Appendix on Wiktionary
• WikiProject Toki Pona on Wikidata

Notes

1. While some sources list ale and ali separate words,^[8] Lang originally published them as variations of the same word.^{[9][10][11][12]}