Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
Funafuti

Funafuti

1 8.8
The capital city of Tuvalu on a small ring of islands in the Pacific Ocean
  • proper noun
: Funafuti
  • Though just a sliver of sand between the sea and lagoon, the Funafuti atoll is now home to 5,000 people—half of Tuvalu's population.
  • Funafuti atoll

Examples

  • Jerry Flowers gave me orders to board this cockleshell for transfer to Funafuti.

  • He was returning from his bird-watching expedition to the Funafuti Atoll... ...when his plane went down in the South Pacific.

    Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)

  • The lagoon in Funafuti is a national playground and an absolutely breathtaking site.

    Blog text (20)

  • It is 14 kilometers wide and 18 kilometers long, making it the most prominent of Funafuti's natural sites.

    Blog text (20)

  • Her aunties' houses are filled with family from the outer islands, who have come to Funafuti for a weekend wedding.

Surface Forms

Funafuti main

Etymology

The word Funafuti comes from the Tuvaluan language and is the local name for the atoll that forms Tuvalu's capital. A helpful way to remember it is to think of Funafuti as the island 'atoll' capital in the Pacific, so when you hear the name picture a small island town and the sea around it.