Word.ws English Dictionary

pak pai

UK/pakˈpʌɪ/

pak pai noun: a car used as an illegal taxi in Hong Kong.

Noun

pak pai (plural pak pai or pak pais)

  1. (historical) A car used as an illegal taxi in Hong Kong.
    • He took pak-pais, knowing they were less under the thumb of the police.1977, John Le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy, Folio Society, published 2010, page 471
    Synonyms:
    white card

Synonyms of pak pai

Forms of pak pai

pluralpak pai
pluralpak pais
alternative formpak-pai

Origin of pak pai

From Cantonese 白牌車 /白牌车 (baak⁶ paai⁴⁻² ce¹), literally ‘white numberplate’.

Questions about pak pai

What does pak pai mean?
Pak pai means a car used as an illegal taxi in Hong Kong.
What part of speech is pak pai?
Pak pai is a noun.
How do you pronounce pak pai?
Pak pai is pronounced /pakˈpʌɪ/ (UK).
What is the plural of pak pai?
The plural of pak pai is pak pai.

Words near pak pai in the dictionary

  1. pak
  2. pak chew cheng
  3. pak chiu cheng
  4. pak choi
  5. pak choy
  6. pak pai
  7. pak pais
  8. Pak Sha Wan
  9. pak tong gou
  10. Pak-
  11. pak-a-pu

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pak pai (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:

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