ho kua bo ho jiak
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Singapore[ˌhoː˨˦ ˈkʰwɑː˦˨ boː˨˩ ˌhoː˨˦ ˈt͡s˭jɑʔ˦˧]
ho kua bo ho jiak phrase: superficial; incompetent or having no substance despite appearances, skin-deep; portraying oneself as greater than one actually is; all style and no substance.
Phrase
ho kua bo ho jiak
- Superficial; incompetent or having no substance despite appearances, skin-deep; portraying oneself as greater than one actually is; all style and no substance.
- Sure, they turn heads. But what is it like riding one of these scooters with a sidecar? When I first saw one of Mr Johnny Chen’s creations online, I thought “ho kua bo ho jiak” (Hokkien slang which means all style and no substance) […]2014 May 17, Kevin Chin, The Straits Times, Singapore, Life! Motoring, page 2
- Unpalatable despite having great presentation.
Origin of ho kua bo ho jiak
From Hokkien 好看無好食 /好看无好食 (hó-khòaⁿ bô hó-chia̍h, literally “good to look at, not good to eat”).
Questions about ho kua bo ho jiak
- What does ho kua bo ho jiak mean?
- Ho kua bo ho jiak means superficial; incompetent or having no substance despite appearances, skin-deep; portraying oneself as greater than one actually is; all style and no substance.
- What part of speech is ho kua bo ho jiak?
- Ho kua bo ho jiak is a phrase.
- How do you pronounce ho kua bo ho jiak?
- Ho kua bo ho jiak is pronounced [ˌhoː˨˦ ˈkʰwɑː˦˨ boː˨˩ ˌhoː˨˦ ˈt͡s˭jɑʔ˦˧] (Singapore).
Words near ho kua bo ho jiak in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ho kua bo ho jiak (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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