Boba

//ˈboʊ.bə// noun, slang

noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Synonym of tapioca pearl. countable, uncountable

    "She settled on the Chai Frappé Burst, a frozen, blended concoction with whipped cream, boba and cinnamon sugar sprinkles."

  2. 2
    Ellipsis of boba tea. abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis, uncountable

    "“I was shocked,” said Leanne Yuen, a longtime boba drinker and a student at the University of California, Irvine. “What am I going to do now?”"

  3. 3
    A breast, especially that of an adult or adolescent female human. colloquial, countable, slang, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
breastsbubble teatapioca pearl

Example

More examples

"Tom doesn't like the boba pearls in bubble tea."

Etymology

From Chinese 波霸 (bōbà), from Cantonese 波霸 (bo1 baa3, “tapioca pearls” [literally: “big balls]”), from 波 (bo1) (itself from English ball) and 霸 (baa3, “chief, top”).

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