Towkay

//ˈt̪au̯.keɪ// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A business owner; boss (especially a Chinese Malaysian or Chinese Singaporean boss). Malaysia, Singapore

    "My own experience would lead me to suggest that the Chinese immigrants should be placed under one Towkay, or head man, who would control those villages under his care."

  2. 2
    Term of address for a business owner boss. Malaysia, Singapore

Synonyms

All synonyms
bossma'amsirtaoke

Example

More examples

"My own experience would lead me to suggest that the Chinese immigrants should be placed under one Towkay, or head man, who would control those villages under his care."

Etymology

From Hokkien 頭家 /头家 (thâu-ke, “boss”). Doublet of taoke.

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