Tapa
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A kind of cloth prepared by the Polynesians from the inner bark of the paper mulberry. countable, uncountable
"For many of these cultures, clothing — or at least coverings for basic modesty such as loincloths and G-strings — is the main use of tapa."
- 2 Any appetizer or snack served in the evening as part of tapas.
- 3 Seasoned slices of dried or cured meat in Filipino cuisine. uncountable
"Cusinera serves stupendous silog (traditional Filipino breakfast, $5.61) — eggs with garlic rice and a protein of your choice, such as daing (crispy dried fish), longaniza (juicy, garlicky pork sausage) and tapa (cured beef steak)."
- 4 a paperlike cloth made in the South Pacific by pounding tapa bark wordnet
- 5 the thin fibrous bark of the paper mulberry and Pipturus albidus wordnet
Example
More examples"It would take less than three hours by tank from the Russian border across the flat Baltic grasslands and birch forests to reach the Tapa military base in Estonia."
Etymology
] Borrowed from Tongan tapa.
Borrowed from Spanish tapa. Doublet of tap.
Borrowed from Tagalog tapa.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.