Word.ws English Dictionary

joss stick

joss stick noun: a stick of incense, especially (Taoism, Buddhism, etc.) those burned as an offering before a Chinese shrine.

joss stick: a stick of incense, especially (Taoism, Buddhism, etc.) those burned as an offering before a...
Image: Myrabella, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

joss stick (plural joss sticks)

  1. A stick of incense, especially (Taoism, Buddhism, etc.) those burned as an offering before a Chinese shrine.
    • For instance, Hawkins, Lewis, Hankin and Sengupta all cover the word agarbatti, an incense stick or joss stick, but there is no way of knowing when this term was first used in Indian English, nor whether it is now current or obsolete.2012, James Lambert, “Beyond Hobson-Jobson: A new lexicography for Indian English”, in World Englishes, page 300

joss stick meaning in Urdu, Tagalog, Malay and Indonesian

joss stick in Urdu

اگربتی

joss stick in Tagalog

incense stick
tanghas

joss stick in Malay

incense stick
colok

joss stick in Indonesian

incense stick
hio
More languagesFewer languages
joss stick in Thai
ธูป tûup
joss stick in Myanmar
အမွှေးတိုင် a.hmwe:tuing

Forms of joss stick

pluraljoss sticks
alternative formjoss-stick

Origin of joss stick

From joss (“Chinese idol”) + stick.

Questions about joss stick

What does joss stick mean?
Joss stick means a stick of incense, especially (Taoism, Buddhism, etc.) those burned as an offering before a Chinese shrine.
What is joss stick in Urdu?
Joss stick in Urdu is اگربتی. See Joss stick meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is joss stick?
Joss stick is a noun.
What is the plural of joss stick?
The plural of joss stick is joss sticks.

Words near joss stick in the dictionary

  1. joss
  2. joss house
  3. joss houses
  4. joss paper
  5. joss papers
  6. joss stick
  7. joss sticks
  8. joss-block
  9. joss-blocks
  10. joss-stick
  11. joss-sticks

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: joss stick (page history and authors); joss stick (Urdu Wiktionary) (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-joss stick.wav.

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