Word.ws English Dictionary

boba

/ˈbəʊ.bə/US/ˈboʊ.bə/

boba noun: synonym of tapioca pearl. Also the ellipsis of boba tea.

Noun

boba (countable and uncountable, plural bobas)

  1. Synonym of tapioca pearl.
    • She settled on the Chai Frappé Burst, a frozen, blended concoction with whipped cream, boba and cinnamon sugar sprinkles.2024 September 16, Priya Krishna, “The Customized Drink Is Out of Control”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    tapioca pearl
  2. (colloquial, slang) A breast, especially that of an adult or adolescent female human.

Also used as

boba is also the ellipsis of boba tea.

Synonyms of boba

Forms of boba

pluralbobas

Origin of boba

From Chinese 波霸 (bōbà), from Cantonese 波霸 (bo1 baa3, “tapioca pearls” [literally: “big balls]”), from 波 (bo1) (itself from English ball) and 霸 (baa3, “chief, top”).

Words formed from boba

Phrases with boba

Questions about boba

What does boba mean?
Boba means synonym of tapioca pearl.
What part of speech is boba?
Boba is a noun.
How do you pronounce boba?
Boba is pronounced /ˈboʊ.bə/ (US).
What is the plural of boba?
The plural of boba is bobas.

Words near boba in the dictionary

  1. bob-cherry
  2. bob-job
  3. bob-jobs
  4. bob-skate
  5. bob-skates
  6. boba
  7. boba liberal
  8. boba liberals
  9. boba tea
  10. boba teas
  11. bobac

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: boba (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-boba.wav.

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