octopus card
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.45 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
4
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A contactless smart card, introduced in 1997, used as a form of payment in Hong Kong, originally for the mass transit system, but now widely used for public transport and other retail transactions.
Example Sentences
- "Bus routes cover every part of the territory. […] Octopus cards or exact change must be paid on entry."
- "But when I pressed my Octopus card to the fare machine, it answered with an angry buzz, like I'd answered wrong in a quiz show."
- "Normally speaking, on a Monday my Octopus card will have HK$500–600 ($64–77 USD) stored inside, by Friday there will be very little left."
Etymology
Coined in a naming competition. Like its Chinese counterpart 八達通 /八达通 (baat³ daat⁶ tung¹), it references the number eight, as an octopus has eight tentacles.