Bao

//baʊ// name, noun

name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any of various types of steamed bread or bun used in Chinese cuisine countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    A mancala board game played in East Africa. uncountable
  3. 3
    Initialism of baryon acoustic oscillation. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
  4. 4
    A sandwich or stuffed bun made with this bread countable, uncountable
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.

Etymology

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Mandarin 包 (bāo) or Cantonese 包 (baau1). Cognate of Vietnamese bánh bao.

Etymology 2

From Swahili bao.

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.