Yao

name, noun

name, noun ·1 syllable ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A Bantu people living in Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania in Africa. plural, plural-only
  2. 2
    The Mien people of China. plural, plural-only
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    The language of these people.
  2. 2
    A Chinese surname from Hokkien.
  3. 3
    A Chinese surname from Mandarin.

Synonyms

All synonyms
wayao

Example

More examples

"No Chinese person is more famous now than basketball player and NBA All-Star, Yao Ming, who is headlining China's Olympic basketball team."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Mandarin 瑤／瑶 (yáo).

Etymology 2

From Mandarin 姚 (yáo) and Hokkien 姚 (iâu).

Related phrases

Yao graph

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