null1024

Toki te Kone to English dictionary:

This document is in progress and can be invalidated at any time for any reason. Words are missing, formatting is missing, etc, etc. That being said, I doubt I'm going to change everything, or even most things.

As of this writing, do not submit an issue on GitHub regarding anything on this page. This policy will eventually be changed as Toki te Kone matures as a language and as I finish this page, but neither the page nor Toki te Kone are in enough of a complete state for any issues to be meaningful.

This HTML version is now the definitive Toki te Kone dictionary, obsoleting any plain-text versions as of this writing, and taking precedence over any translated versions (none authorized at this moment, not that you need any authorization).

I do try to give a decent rationale for my thought processes for definitions, or warn about any hard edges that you might encounter. Hopefully this dictionary helps you in your Toki te Kone learning experience!

index:

legend:

• (i) - interjection
• (part) - particle
• (pv) - preverb
• (pn) - pronoun
• (prep) - preposition
• (n) - noun
• (adj) - adjective
• (adv) - adverb
• (vi) - intransitive verb
• (vt) - transitive verb
• [ex:] - example sentence
• [notes:] - various notes on usage or what I was thinking

Dictionary:

-a-

• a:
  (i) expression of surprise, ah!
  (part) emphasizes either the previous noun/verb phrase (or the entire sentence if used at the end)
  [ex:] musi a. (Funny.)
  [notes:] I overuse a a lot. It's pretty pona mute a. :D
  
• akesi:
  (n) reptile, amphibian, scaly creature or similar
  (adj) reptilian, amphibian, scaly
  [ex:] akesi pi ma Florida li wawa ta a. (The reptiles of Florida are powerful.)
  [notes:] akesi is not a terribly precise term, and that's alright. I kinda wonder if dinosaurs still count as akesi given more recent developments -- I'd still say it, although you could possibly also say waso for them, even if waso does immediately conjure up the image of a modern bird. I suspect waso akesi might be better there.
  
• ala:
  (i) - no!
  (n) - nothingness, nothing
  (adj), (adv) - not
  (vi) - to not exist
  (vt) - to make nothing, to remove, to cause to disappear (from existence)
  [ex:] tenpo pimeja pini la, mi lape ala e. (Last night, I didn't sleep.)
  [notes:] ala often gets used to make the opposite of a word -- kiwen ala tends to be "soft", for example
  
• alasa:
  (n) - hunt, search
  (adj), (adv) - huntingly, searchingly
  (vi), (vt) - to hunt, to search for, to seek
  [notes:] alasa tends to bring to mind outdoorsy hunting sort of things, like hunting and tracking game. That being said, it still gets used for looking for something in general.
  
• ale: (ali:)
  (n) - everything, all
  (adj) all of, every
  (adv) wholly, completely, entirely
  (vi) - ???
  (vt) - ???
  [ex:] ma ale li pona lukin ta a! (The whole world is beautiful!) [ex:] mi weka e mani ali no mi lon u esun. [notes:] If you used ale or ali to mean "life", use pita instead.
  [notes:] I don't know what it would mean as a verb.
  [notes:] ale and ali are identical in meaning; pick whichever you want or even use both (like I do). That being said, I generally prefer ale. ali was made to prevent confusion with ala for some listeners, and if there is a chance of confusion, then ali is recommended instead. I often use the one that has an ending that sounds better based on what I'm saying (and in song lyrics or poems, you get to pick the one that rhymes).
• anpa:
  (n) bottom, under, floor
  (adj) underneath, below, low
  (adv) downwardly
  (vi), (vt) - to lower
  [ex:] telo li tawa anpa kama u upea. (Rain falls from the sky.) [TODO: might alter upea]
  
• ante:
  (n) difference, change, alteration
  (adj) other, different, changed, altered
  (adv) differently
  (vi), (vt) to change, to alter, to make different
  [ex:] mi ante e lon lukin pi linja no mi. (I changed how my hair looks. More literally, I altered the visual existence of my hair.) [TODO: am I using lukin like that?]
  [notes:]
  
• anu:
  (part) or
  [ex:] sina tawa u tomo sina anu seme? (Are you going to your home?)
  [ex:] sina pilin e seme? tomo no mi li pona anu ike? ("What do you feel? Is my house good or bad?")
  [notes:] anu seme literally means "or what", but is an extremely standard way of asking a question, with no hard feelings.
  
• awen:
  (n) stillness, waiting
  (adj) still
  (adv) without moving?
  (vi) to stay, to wait, to remain
  (vt) to keep still, to cause to remain
  [ex:] ina li awen lon u supa no mi. (It stayed on my desk.)
  [notes:] Unlike how some TP use it, in TK, awen does not mean protection. [TODO: this is probably all wrong and I will change it]
  

-e-

• e:
  (part) marks the verb; anything after it is the direct object of the verb
  [ex:] mi moku e pan sike. (I ate the round bread.)
  [notes:] If you have an intransitive verb (a verb that doesn't target anything), you don't need to have e there, but it does mean the verb can be misinterpreted as a noun or an adjective.
  
• en:
  (part) adds another part to the noun or verb phrase, works just like "and"
  [ex:] mi en sina li tawa en moku. (You and I eat and go.)
  [notes:] This was changed from Toki Pona to make things simpler. It's significantly more similar to English "and" now, even though there was a clear, deliberate attempt to not just do that in Toki Pona.
  
• epiku:
  (n) coolness (not temperature), greatness, awesomeness, epicness, excellency
  (adj) cool, great, awesome, epic, excellent
  (adv) awesomely, greatly, epically
  (vi) to be awesome, to be great, to be cool
  (vt) to make awesome, to make great, to make cool, to improve upon
  [ex:] sina epiku ta! (You're great!)
  [notes:] Personally, I'm not the biggest fan of this word due to its extreme overlap with "pona", but it's in ku, so it goes in, and it's still pretty useful. Remember, every time the word "cool" is mentioned in this definition, it isn't referring to temperature. :P
• esun:
  (n) business, market, shop
  (adj) relating to business or finance
  (adv) financially
  (vi) to shop, to do business
  (vt) to buy
  [ex:] jan Milia li esun e kili. (Milia bought a fruit.)
  [notes:] Use a phrase like pana esun e (literally, "to financially give") for "to sell".
  [notes:] It can get a little confusing since I'm pretty sure bank would be tomo esun (financial building), even though that might be your first instinct to say "store" or "shop". esun on its own as a noun means that. Use ijo esun for trade goods and purchases.

-i-

• ijo:
  (n) thing, item, object
  (adj) physical
  (adv) physically, materially
  (vt) to thingify (TODO: what does that mean???)
  [notes:] All the non-noun forms just feel weird to me. This is the problem with giving a definition for every part of speech that a word could be in -- even if it might end up making sense there, you might not know how to explain it.
• ike:
  (n) badness, evilness, wrongness
  (adj) bad, evil, wrong (as opposed to good, rather than as opposed to correct)
  (adv) badly, poorly
  (vi) to do bad, to be bad
  (vt) to do bad to something, to harm
  [notes:] Toki te Kone doesn't make "ike" have an opinion about complexity, although I suspect a TK speaker to possibly still agree with complexity being wrong. Also, although all these definitions sound prety harsh, you can just be like "na li ike" (that is bad) and not just immediately be like "oh man, that thing is eeeeevil", it isn't always that strong.
• ilo:
  (n) tool, equipment, electronics, device, machine
  (adj) mechanical
  (adv) mechanically, electronically
  (v) to mechanize
  [ex:] ilo mi te pakala e kiwen li wawa ta a. (My stone breaking machine is powerful.)
  [notes:] as a noun, it doesn't necessarily imply something is electronic or mechanized or whatever, but I suspect a lot of things described with it will be; it feels a bit rough that all the other word forms are in fact about mechanical things, but whatever
  
• ina:
  (pn) it (inanimate, nonliving)
  [notes:] Use ina for objects and tools. I was going to limit ona to sapient beings, but would you really call your pet an "it"? :P
• insa
  (n) innards, inside area
  (adj) inside of
  (adv) inwardly
  (vi) to go inside
  (vt) to go inside of
  (prep) to be inside of
  [ex:] ona li insa u tomo no ona. (They're inside of their house.)
  [notes:] This doesn't exactly mean stomach like in Toki Pona but you might end up saying something like insa mi li pilin ike e if you have a stomachache, for example.
  

-j-

• jaki:
  (n) filth, dirt, garbage
  (adj) filthy, dirty, nasty, disgusting
  (adv) filthily, nastily, disgustingly
  (vi) to be filthy
  (vt) to make filthy, to dirty
  [ex:] na li jaki ta a! (That's filthy!)
  
• jan:
  (n) person
  (adj) personal, person-like
  (adv) personally, in the way a person would
  [ex:] jan pona no mi li wile tawa u ma Tosi. (My friend wants to go to Germany.)
  [notes:] Person doesn't have to mean human! If there were literal space aliens that ended up saying "mi mute li wile toki tawa u jan lawa no sina.", you would still probably call them jan. A "jan" is someone you could (even if only theoretically -- actual physical constraints do not apply) hold a conversation with. If we ever get an AI that is actually self-aware, I would probably call it "jan". Maybe "jan ilo", but "jan" first.
  
• jasima:
  (n) mirror, reflection, opposite
  (adj) opposite
  (adv) oppositely
  (vi), (vt) to reverse, to mirror, to make opposite, to flip over
  [ex:] mi jasima e lipu no mi. (I flipped over my book)
  [notes:] remember, all the ku words are in TK
  
>
• jelo:
  (n) yellow
  (adj) yellow
  (vi), (vt) to yellow, to become yellow
  [notes:] All the color words will be something like this. Also, I don't know how to use it as an adverb. Would that even make sense?
  

-k-

• kala:
  (n) sea creature, fish
  (adj) fish-like
  (adv) fishily (eg, "mi tawa kala e" would probably be to swim -- "I move like a fish")
  (vi), (vt) to fish, to trawl
  [ex:] tenpo suno kama la mi moku e kala mute. (Next morning, I'll eat a lot of fish.)
  [notes:] pretty much any primarily aquatic animal is described by kala, even like dolphins
  
• kalama:
  (n) sound, audio
  (adj) loud
  (adv) loudly
  (vi) to make sound
  (vt) to apply sound to, to project sound to
  [ex:] ilo kalama no mi li wawa i.
  
• kama:
  (pv) to be in the process of, to do later
  (n) arrival, happening, coming
  (adj) future, coming
  (vi) to come
  (vt) to cause, to summon, to bring about
  (prep) origin of, source of, from
  [ex:] mi kama sona e toki Nijon (I'm learning Japanese.) (lit: I come to know the Japanese lanugage)
  [ex:]
  [notes:] pre-verbs are a bit of a mess; also kama in TK replaces tan as meaning "from", tan now means strictly "because of" or "for this reason" now
  
• kasi:
  (n) plant, herb, shrub, something plant-like even if it isn't literally a plant (eg, a sponge might be describable as "kasi no telo" -- water's plant)
  (adj) botanical, herbal, plant-like
  (adv) botanically, herbally, plant-like
  (vi), (vt) ???
  
• ken:
  (pv) ability
  (n) possibility, potential, ability, chance
  (adj) possible
  (vi) to be able, to be permitted
  (vt) to allow, to permit
  [ex:] mi ken lape (I can sleep)
  [ex:] mi ken! (I can!)
  [ex:] ken la, ale li pona a. (Maybe everything will be great.)
  [notes:] you'll probably see "ken la" a lot at the start of sentences, this means "maybe" or "possibly"; I have no idea if I have the definition/usage for the verb forms set up right, how would I even use ken as a transitive verb?
  
• kepeken:
  (n) use
  (adj) useful
  (vi), (vt) to use
  (prep) using, via
  [ex:] mi tawa u tomo no sina kepeken u tomo tawa mi. ("I went to your house using my car.")
  [notes:]I don't think I've ever used this as anything other than a preposition or verb. I suspect a phrase like "ni li ilo kepeken no mi" ("this is my useful tool") or "kepeken no ina li to sina ken pali e lupa insa u ma." (it's use is that you can make holes in the ground) might sound a bit jarring to a Toki Pona speaker.
• kijetesantakalu:
  (n) animal in the superfamily Musteloidea, namely raccoons
  (adj), (adv) like a racoon/other musteloid
  (vi), (vt) ??? you might be able to argue that "mi li kijetesantakalu e sina" would be "I racoonify you" but I don't like it one bit
  [notes:] this is arguably a joke word inherited from TP -- but it is still a word, and you should not be surprised if someone actually uses it
  
• kili:
  (n) fruit, vegetable, maybe nut
  (adj), (adv) like a fruit/nut/vegetable
  (vi), (vt) ???
  
• kin
  (adj), (adv) also, too
  [notes:] kin has zero overlap with the word a in Toki te Kone, unlike the definition found in lipu pu.
* kipisi
(n) cut, split, division
(adj) cut, split
(adv) divisively
(vi), (vt) to cut, to split, to sever, to divide into pieces

* kiwen
(n) rock, stone, metal, other hard material
(adj) hard, tough, durable, metallic, rocky
(adv) ???
(vi) to be hard, to be tough, to be durable
(vt) to harden, to toughen, to make durable
[notes:] should really figure out a distinction for metals at least, that seems important; I really should have a separate word for metal vs rock

* ko
(n) clay, dough, something semi-solid
(adj) semi-solid, doughy, squishy
(adv) like clay
(vi), (vt) to squish
[notes:] doesn't this describe sand in Toki Pona? TODO: double check; if so, it still doesn't in Toki te Kone lol

* kokosila
(n) the speaking of a language other than what is currently being spoken (typically Toki te Kone) in a group
(adj) like one who speaks a language other than the one that is currently being spoken with a group
(vi) to speak a language other than the one being spoken in a group
[notes:] Generalizing the definition made it clunky, but basically, if you're in a group of Toki te Kone speakers and are speaking in English, you're kokosilia-ing. It's not always unwarranted. This word is here almost entirely because it was a nimi ku suli.

* kon
(n) gas, air, spirit, essence, meaning, breath
(adj) gaseous, spiritual, wispy, breathy
(adv) wispily, breathily
(vi) to breathe

* ku
(n) the official Toki Pona Dictionary
(adj) from the Toki Pona Dictionary
(adv) like found in the Toki Pona Dictionary
(vi) to interact with or otherwise utilize the Toki Pona Dictionary
(vt) to utilize the Toki Pona Dictionary upon someone or something (eg, teach with it)
[notes:] this is totally a legacy word and the meaning has not been altered to refer to Toki te Kone; I am deeply tempted to add my own word(s) to refer to the official Toki te Kone documentation

* kule
(n) color, pigment
(adj) colorful, colored, painted, pigmented
(adv) colorfully
(vi), (vt) to color, to paint, to apply pigment to

* kute
(n) ear, something that hears, understanding
(adj) aural
(adv) aurally, sonically
(vi), (vt) to hear, to listen, to understand

-l-

• la:
  (part) marks the end of the context phrase; no longer used to create "if __ then __" statements, use "so" for that.
  [notes:] la gets used for a lot of things, most notably specifying time
* lanpan
(n) seizure (of goods), theft
(adj) stolen, seized, taken
(adv) in a way relating to seizure (of goods), thievingly
(vi), (vt) to take, to steal, to grab
[notes:] although the overarching theme is "this was taken by force", you'll probably hear it get used in a less aggressive manner

* lape
(n) sleep, rest, relaxation
(adj) resting, sleeping
(adv) sleepily
(vi) to sleep, to rest
(vt) to knock out, to cause to sleep

* laso
(n) blue, aqua, sometimes green
[notes:] laso sewi or laso upea is a nice sky blue, while laso kasi is a definite green, but in general, laso is largely a blueish tone; part of me wants to use "laso no jan ilo Miku" for aqua blue but that's too goofy. laso pi telo suli (the green/blue/aqua of the ocean) is incredibly ambiguous.
* lawa
(n) head, mind, brain, control, rule, ruler
(adj) controlling, leading
(adv) controllingly
(vi), (vt) to lead, to guide, to control, to rule
[notes:] I might split this up since there are a lot of concepts in this word.

* leko
(n) square, rectangle, block, cube
(adj) square, cubic, blocky
(adv) blockily
(vi), (vt) to cube, to make square

* len
(n) clothes, cloth, covering, fabric
(adj) fabric, clothed
(adv) like clothes
(vi) to be clothed, to be covered
(vt) to clothe, to cover

* lete
(n) coldness, coolness (temperature)
(adj) cold, cool (temperature), uncooked, chilled, frigid
(adv) coldly, frigidly
(vi) to be cold
(vt) to cool, to chill

* li
(part) separates the subject from the rest of the sentence

* lila
(n) part, piece, portion, a bit
(adj) a part of, a portion of, a bit of
(adv) partially
(vi), (vt) to split, to portion

• lili:
  (n) littleness, smallness
  (adj) small, little, minor (importance?), young (TODO: will it still mean this?)
  (vi) to shrink
  (vt) to cause to shrink, to make smaller
• linja:
  (n) hair, string, other wavy or long thing
  (adj) stringy, wavy, long
  (adv) stringily
  (vi),(vt) ???
  
• linluwi:
  (n) internet, network, any kind of bi-directional electronic or radio communication system
  (adj) regarding the internet/communication system
  (adv) "internetly", like the internet?
  (vi) to use the internet/communication system
  (vt) to put/transmit on the internet/communication system
  [notes:] was deeply tempted to not include this since it's not a nimi ku suli but it is genuinely too useful; Toki te Kone is a language of the internet as well and needs a way to express that in one word
  [notes:] kone gets used in a lot of places where some TP speakers might have used linluwi
* lipu
(n) book

* loje
(n), (adj) red


• lon
  (i) true, yes
  (prep) in, at, on
  (n) existence, truth, reality, that which exists
  (adj) true, real
  (adv) truly
  (vi) to exist
  (vt) to cause to exist
  [notes:] I might have used this for location at some point. I really need to make a word for location, since I've decided that lon isn't that word.
* luka
(n) hand, arm
(vi) ??? no idea
(vt) to apply one's hand to, to touch, to strike, to press

* lukin
(n) eye
(adj) visual
(adv) visually
(vi), (vt) to see
[notes:] [TODO -- do I want to alter this to refer to appearance? we do have oko for eye/sight, but like, it doesn't feel right]

* lupa
(n) hole, indent, door, opening, orifice
(adj) holey, indented,
(vi), (vt) to create a hole/indent

* ma
(n) land, area, place, outside, location
[notes:] although I'm not 100% sure if it definitely implies outside in Toki Pona, you can totally refer to a large indoor space as "ma" in Toki te Kone

* mama
(n) parent, originator, creator

* mani
(n) money
[notes:] still not sure if I should keep the meaning of like, cattle -- it is confusing every time I see it, but it is both historical and funny

* meli
(n) female
(adj) feminine

* meso
(n) middle, center
(adj) intermediate, middle, so-so
(adv) centrally
(vi), (vt) to center

* mi
(pn) I/me
(adj) mine, my

* mije
(n) male
(adj) masculine

* misekeke
(n) medicine
(adj) healing, medicinal
(adv) medicinally
(vi), (vt) to heal, to medicate

* moku
(n) food
(adj) edible, food-related (vi), (vt) to eat, to consume

* moli
(n) death
(adj) dead,
(adv) ??? (it makes sense as an adverb, I just don't know what to put as a definition)
(vi) to die
(vt) to kill

* monsi
(n), (adj) rear, behind
(adv) ???
(vi), (vt) ???

* monsuta
TODO: this word is apparently considered a bit complicated and I dunno how I'm going to handle it... probably totally differently than Toki Pona

* mu
(n) animal noise, grunt
(adj) relating to an animal noise or grunt
(adv) ???
(vi) to make an animal noise or grunt
(vt) to make an animal noise or grunt at something
[ex:] ilo te mu no mi li pana e kalama mute a. (My animal noise maker produces a big sound.)

* mun
(n) moon, satellite

* musi
(n) fun, play, entertainment, game
(adj) fun, entertaining, enjoyable, interesting
(adv) playfully, entertainingly
(vi), (vt) to play

* mute
(adj) very, a lot of
(vi), (vt) to multiply, to increase in number

* n
(i) filler sound, um, uh...

* namako
(n) spice
(vi) ???
(vt) to spice

* nanpa
(n) number
(adj) numeric
(adv) numerically
(vi), (vt) to count

* na
(pn) that
[notes:]this is in direct relation to ni

* nasa
(n) craziness, absurdity
(adj) crazy, absurd, drunken (as in under the influence of alcohol), mixed up,
(adv) crazily, in an absurd way
(vi) ???
(vt) to mix up, to drive crazy, to cause to be absurd
[notes:] in general, this doesn't get used for "stupid", if you really want to say that, go with "... pi sona ala" (... of no knowledge)

* nasin
(n) path, way, road
[notes:] this can be (and is often) metaphorical -- nasin kasi would probably refer to botany (plant way)

* nena
(n) hill, bump, nose, hump, button, mountain, other raised protrusion

* ni
(pn) this

* nike
(n) victory, win
(adj) victorious, winning
(adv) winningly
(vi) to win
(vt) to win at/over
[ex:] mi nike e sina (I am victorious over you!)

* nimi
(n) name, word
(vt) to name, to give a name to, to make a word for

* no
(part) indicates possession
[ex:] ni li ijo utala pi wawa mute no mi. -- This is my powerful weapon.
[ex:] ilo toki te kone no mi li pona lukin a. -- My phone looks great.
[notes:] no applies to the very first noun in a phrase, period. Thus, you can use it after a long phrase to describe something you own.

* noka
(n) foot, leg

* o
(part) calls upon someone/something and optionally marks a command/request upon them; if the part before o is omitted, interpret it as "sina o ..."
[ex:] jan Tolimi o kama e! (Doremi, come!)
[ex:] o moku! (Eat!)
[ex:] jan Teto o! (Hey, Teto!)

* oko
(n) eye
(adj) optical
(adv) optically
(vi), (vt) to see, to observe, to gaze

* olin
(vt) to love

* open
(vt) to begin, to open
[notes:] it can be both open as in "open the door" and open as in "we now open this ceremony"