Speakur

Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

tai tai

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.20 in modern English

Syllables
tai -tai
IPA
6
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
3
Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A wealthy woman who lives a life of leisure.

Etymology

Borrowed from Mandarin 太太 (tàitai, literally “great-great”), originally a high-ranking honorific title for the wives of officials during the Ming dynasty, later generalising to "madam", "Mrs.", or "wife" in modern Mandarin. In Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong English, the term underwent a semantic shift to specifically denote a wealthy married woman who enjoys a life of conspicuous leisure.

Inflected Forms

tai-tai (alternative)

Questions

What does tai tai mean?
A wealthy woman who lives a life of leisure.
Where does tai tai come from?
Borrowed from Mandarin 太太 (tàitai, literally “great-great”), originally a high-ranking honorific title for the wives of officials during the Ming dynasty, later generalising to "madam", "Mrs.", or "wife" in modern Mandarin. In Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong English, the term underwent a semantic shift to specifically denote a wealthy married woman who enjoys a life of conspicuous leisure.

How to pronounce tai tai

  1. Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “tai tai”.
  2. Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
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  4. Repeat and practice — Say “tai tai” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.