Word.ws English Dictionary

pau

pau is the alternative form of pa.

pau is the alternative form of bao.

Meaning of pa

Noun (1)

pa (plural pas)

  1. (colloquial) Father, papa.
    Synonyms:
    da, dad, daddy, papa, pater, pappy, pop, poppy
  2. (colloquial) Grandpa, grandfather.
    Synonyms:
    grandpapa, grandpappy, grandpop, grandpoppy, pappy, pop, poppy, big daddy

Noun (2)

pa (plural pas)

  1. (New Zealand, historical) A fortified Maori settlement, especially of pre-European times.
    • The very existence of fortified pā was often a sign that those who lived near such complexes sought to discourage attack and wanted to make conflict less likely, not more so.2003, Michael King, The Penguin History of Aotearoa New Zealand, Penguin, published 2023, page 71
  2. (New Zealand) Any Maori village or settlement; a kainga.

See all 6 meanings of pa

Meaning of bao

Noun (1)

bao (countable and uncountable, plural baos or bao)

  1. Any of various types of steamed bread or bun used in Chinese cuisine
  2. A sandwich or stuffed bun made with this bread

Noun (2)

bao (uncountable)

  1. A mancala board game played in East Africa.

See all 4 meanings of bao

Adjective

pau (not comparable)

  1. (Hawaii) done; over; finished
    • I had never known any haoles except Elmer and Marks and they were ice cold affairs. Everyone was always glad when their twice-a-month visit was pau. The very island seemed to sigh with relief […]1946, Armine Von Tempski, Bright Spurs, page 122
    • When the county truck was pau hauling rubbish for the day, […]2004, Mike Ashman, Kauaʻi Historical Society, Kauai as it was in the 1940s and '50s

Noun

pau

  1. (historical) A unit of volume used in Brunei, Malaysia, Sabah, and Sarawak, equivalent to 2 imperial gills (approximately 0.284 litres or 0.6 US pints).

Proper noun capitalized: Pau

Pau

  1. A city, the capital of Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France.
  2. A commune of the province of Oristano, Sardinia, Italy.

Forms of pau

pluralpaus

Origin of pau

From Hawaiian Pidgin English pau, from Hawaiian pau (“done, finished”).

Borrowed from Chinese 包.

Phrases with pau

Questions about pau

What does pau mean?
Pau means done; over; finished.
What is pau the alternative form of?
Pau is the alternative form of pa.
What part of speech is pau?
Pau can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.

Words near pau in the dictionary

  1. Patzinaks
  2. Patzold
  3. paté
  4. patée
  5. patés
  6. pau
  7. pau d'arco
  8. pau hana
  9. pau-brasil
  10. paua
  11. pauas

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pau (page history and authors); Pau (page history and authors); pa (page history and authors); bao (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: “pau.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pau. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.