Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

tapao

[ˌt˭ɑ(ː)˧ˈp˭aʊ(˦)]

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.03 in modern English

Syllables: tapao
IPA: [ˌt˭ɑ(ː)˧ˈp˭aʊ(˦)]

7

Scrabble Score

5

Letters

1

Syllables

4

Unique Chars

Meaning

verb

To order (food) as takeaway; to pack food so it can be consumed elsewhere.

Example Sentences

"Recently, my friend ‘tapao’ (packed) 20 packets of kolo mee before she flew back to Kuala Lumpur."
""People don't want to go eat out every day, and whenever you tapao home it's usually from a hawker centre."
""My celebration begins after 11pm on the eve of CNY. After service, I tapao some yu sheng and pen cai, and try to get home before midnight."
"“Why does it happen?”,[…]and “What the Hell should I eat now?!” were some of the questions we pondered on while driving ourselves to the nearest restaurant to (physically) tapao our food… in the rain… while it was all jammed up."

Etymology

Borrowed from Cantonese 打包 (daa³ baau¹, “to pack”).

Inflected Forms

dabao (alternative) tapau (alternative) tapow (alternative)

Questions

How do you pronounce tapao?: The recorded pronunciation is [ˌt˭ɑ(ː)˧ˈp˭aʊ(˦)].
What does tapao mean?: To order (food) as takeaway; to pack food so it can be consumed elsewhere.
Where does tapao come from?: Borrowed from Cantonese 打包 (daa³ baau¹, “to pack”).

How to pronounce tapao

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “tapao”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling ([ˌt˭ɑ(ː)˧ˈp˭aʊ(˦)]) so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “tapao”.
Repeat and practice — Say “tapao” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.