Ciao
//t͡ʃaʊ// intj, noun
intj, noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A greeting or farewell using the word "ciao".
"[…] he excused himself, disappearing in a cloud of ciaos and operatic Italian."
- 2 an acknowledgment that can be used to say hello or goodbye (aloha is Hawaiian and ciao is Italian) wordnet
Intj
- 1 Hello, hi.
- 2 Bye, goodbye.
Example
More examples"[…] he excused himself, disappearing in a cloud of ciaos and operatic Italian."
Etymology
Borrowed from Italian ciao (“hello, goodbye”), from Venetan ciao (“hello, goodbye, your (humble) servant”), from Venetan s-ciao / s-ciavo (“servant, slave”), from Medieval Latin sclavus (“Slav, slave”), related also to Italian schiavo, English Slav, slave and Old Venetan S-ciavón ("Slav"), from Latin Sclavus, ultimately from Proto-Slavic *slověninъ. Not related to Vietnamese chào (“hello, goodbye”). Doublet of Slav and slave.
Related phrases
More for "ciao"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.