Word.ws English Dictionary

bau

bau is the alternative form of bao.

Meaning of bao

Noun (1)

bao (countable and uncountable, plural baos or bao)

  1. Any of various types of steamed bread or bun used in Chinese cuisine
  2. A sandwich or stuffed bun made with this bread

Noun (2)

bao (uncountable)

  1. A mancala board game played in East Africa.

See all 4 meanings of bao

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Bau

Bau (plural Baus)

  1. A surname.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Bau

Bau

  1. (Mesopotamian mythology) A Mesopotamian goddess, initially a life-giving deity sometimes associated with the creation of mankind, later a goddess of healing and medicine.

Adjective capitalized: BAU

BAU (not comparable)

  1. (abbreviation) Abbreviation of business as usual.

Forms of bau

Noun
alternative formbao
alternative formbow
Proper noun
pluralBaus

Origin of bau

Borrowed from Mandarin 包 (bāo) or Cantonese 包 (baau1).

Various origins: * Borrowed from German Bau, perhaps a short form of compounds with this element, such as Bauhofer or Baumann. * Borrowed from French Bau, perhaps a variant of Beau. * Variant of Bao, a surname of Chinese origin.

Questions about bau

What does bau mean?
Bau means a surname.
What is bau the alternative form of?
Bau is the alternative form of bao.
What part of speech is bau?
Bau can be a proper noun or an adjective.

Words near bau in the dictionary

  1. batzen
  2. batzens
  3. batzes
  4. batá
  5. Batăr
  6. bau
  7. Bauan
  8. Bauang
  9. Baubau
  10. baubee
  11. baubees

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bau (page history and authors); Bau (page history and authors); BAU (page history and authors); bao (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “bau.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bau. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.