Word.ws English Dictionary

laowai

Syllables: lao·wai/laʊˈwaɪ/

laowai noun: a foreigner in mainland China or Taiwan, (particularly) a Western one.

Noun

laowai (plural laowais or laowai)

  1. (colloquial) A foreigner in mainland China or Taiwan, (particularly) a Western one.
    Synonyms:
    white person

Synonyms of laowai

  • white person

Forms of laowai

plurallaowais
plurallaowai
alternative formlao-wai
alternative formLao Wai

Origin of laowai

From Mandarin 老外 (lǎowài, literally “old outside[r]”).

Questions about laowai

What does laowai mean?
Laowai means a foreigner in mainland China or Taiwan, (particularly) a Western one.
What part of speech is laowai?
Laowai is a noun.
How do you pronounce laowai?
Laowai is pronounced /laʊˈwaɪ/.
What is the plural of laowai?
The plural of laowai is laowais.

Words near laowai in the dictionary

  1. Laotze
  2. Laou-tsze
  3. laouta
  4. laouto
  5. laoutos
  6. laowai
  7. laowais
  8. laoya
  9. Laozi
  10. Laozian
  11. lap

Source and license

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