chap lau chu
[t͡säp̚˩ lɑʊ˩ t͡sʰuˑ˩]
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.96 in modern English
22
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
1
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "Now empty, Singapore's chap lau chu in Commonwealth are the highlight of a quirky showcase… A group of recent Nanyang Technological University (NTU) graduates have zoomed in on the chap lau chu, Singapore's first 10-storey flats, built in 1962 by the Housing Board in Commonwealth Drive. … While the chap lau chu were not the tallest flats ever built - the Singapore Improvement Trust, the predecessor of the Housing Board, built the now- demolished 14-storey Forfar House in Queenstown in the 1950s"
- "Even as the years go by, chap lau chu still binds me to my childhood friends, many of whom have moved away to start their own families."
- "The cluster of 10-storey blocks of flats also referred to as Chap Lau Chu, while not aesthetically pleasing in the context of today’s public housing designs, served as the face of the HDB’s public housing efforts and were featured on the backs of the new nation’s very first one dollar currency note."
- "The chap kau chus were very alluring to everyone who passed by the dilapidated estate, attracting long gazes and inducing slower footsteps."
- "The seven blocks of brown and beige-coloured flats were the country's first 10-storey flats, and were colloquially known as chap lau chu..."
Etymology
Borrowed from Hokkien 十樓厝 (cha̍p-lâu-chhù, “ten-storey house”). Originating in the 1960s, with the building of pioneering HDB satellite flats.
Word Breakdown
- Root: -