Word.ws English Dictionary

Hoklo

Hoklo noun: a member of a group of Han Chinese whose traditional ancestral homes are in southern Fujian, South China.

Noun

Hoklo (plural Hoklos or Hoklo)

  1. A member of a group of Han Chinese whose traditional ancestral homes are in southern Fujian, South China.
    • Growing up in the countryside of Tainan County, the village was almost entirely populated by Hoklo people, with no Hakkas, no mainlanders, and even less chance of aborigines settling there.2000, Chen Shui-Bian, translated by David J. Toman, The Son of Taiwan: The Life of Chen Shui-Bian and His Dreams for Taiwan, Taiwan Publishing Co., Ltd., →ISBN, →OCLC, page 228
    • Today Hualien is a city of 110,000, unique in having almost equal numbers of Hakka, Hoklo, mainlander and aboriginal citizens: the last group are primarily Atayal and Ami.2011, Stephen Keeling, Brice Minnigh, The Rough Guide to Taiwan, 2nd edition, Rough Guides, page 291
  2. (obsolete) A member of a Southern Min-speaking Chinese people who inhabit or originate from eastern Guangdong; (loosely) Teochew.
    • From our friends and others, we gathered the following information concerning the number of inhabitants. Malays 6000, Bugis 5000, Fuhkeën and other Chinese 100 families, Hok-lo 1000 families, Khĕh 500 families.1840, E. Doty, W. J. Pohlman, “Tour in Borneo”, in The Chinese Repository, volume VIII, number 6, Canton, page 309
    • It lies on the borders of the Hok-lo, and the Hakka or Kheh (or they call themselves Khah) populuation, Hok-lo is the name given to those who speak Tie Chew.1865, George Smith, “Letters from Rev. George Smith”, in The English Presbyterian Messenger, volume XVI, London: Marlborough & Co., Ave Maria Lane, page 320

Proper noun

Hoklo

  1. Taiwanese, the variety of Hokkien spoken in Taiwan and the native language of the Hoklo.
    • The revivalists’ goal is not only to keep Hoklo alive, but also to make it capable of challenging the hegemony of Mandarin Chinese as the officially defined "national language." For revivalists who advocate the complete alphabetization of Hoklo, traditional Chinese characters represent antiquated...2000, A-chin Hsiau, Contemporary Taiwanese Cultural Nationalism, Routledge, →ISBN, page 22
    • Huang, 45, was born in Sanhsia in Taipei County, but grew up in Taipei City speaking Mandarin and Hoklo (more commonly known as Taiwanese).2004 June 23, Cody Yiu, “A loving attitude is color-blind”, in Taipei Times, archived from the original on 25 Jun 2004
    Synonyms:
    Taiwanese, Holo
  2. (Hong-Kong) A variety of Southern Min Chinese originating from the Hailufeng region.
    Synonyms:
    Hai Lok Hong, Hoi Luk Fung, Haklau

Examples of Hoklo in a sentence

  • There are a few districts west of Macao where the Hakka and Hoklo population had dwindled down from 600,000 to 30,000, exclusive of the Punti slain in battles, starved, or sold into slavery.1869, W. L., “The Population of China”, in S. L. Baldwin, editor, The Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal, volume 1, Foochow: Rozario...
  • These people, generally called Hoklos, were all seafaring men, bolder in character than either Hakkas or Puntis, and specially addicted to smuggling and piracy.1895, E. J. Eitel, Europe in China: The History of Hongkong from the Beginning to the Year 1882, London: Luzac & Company, page 132:

Synonyms of Hoklo

Forms of Hoklo

pluralHoklos
pluralHoklo

Origin of Hoklo

Borrowed from a southern Chinese lect; compare Cantonese 學佬／学佬 (hok6 lou2), Hakka 學佬／学佬 (Ho̍k-ló), Hokkien 福佬 (Ho̍h-ló). The Hailufeng variety sense is influenced by Hong Kong Cantonese 學佬 /学佬 (hok⁶ lou²).

Questions about Hoklo

What does Hoklo mean?
Hoklo means a member of a group of Han Chinese whose traditional ancestral homes are in southern Fujian, South China.
How do you use Hoklo in a sentence?
There are a few districts west of Macao where the Hakka and Hoklo population had dwindled down from 600,000 to 30,000, exclusive of the Punti slain in battles, starved, or sold into slavery.
What part of speech is Hoklo?
Hoklo can be a noun or a proper noun.
What is the plural of Hoklo?
The plural of Hoklo is Hoklos.

Words near Hoklo in the dictionary

  1. Hokkienese
  2. Hokksund
  3. hokku
  4. hokkus
  5. Hokkëèn
  6. Hoklo
  7. Hoklos
  8. Hokonui
  9. hokora
  10. hokovirus
  11. hokoviruses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Hoklo (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: “Hoklo.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hoklo. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.