Word.ws English Dictionary

tapa

/ˈtɑːpə/

tapa noun: a kind of cloth prepared by the Polynesians from the inner bark of the paper mulberry.

tapa: a kind of cloth prepared by the Polynesians from the inner bark of the paper mulberry
Image: http://collections.lacma.org/sites/default/files/remote_imag, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

tapa (countable and uncountable, plural tapas)

  1. A kind of cloth prepared by the Polynesians from the inner bark of the paper mulberry.
    • For many of these cultures, clothing — or at least coverings for basic modesty such as loincloths and G-strings — is the main use of tapa.2005, Roger Neich, Mick Pendergrast, Pacific Tapa, University of Hawaii Press, unnumbered page
    Synonyms:
    kapa

Noun (2)

tapa (plural tapas)

  1. Any appetizer or snack served in the evening as part of tapas.

Noun (3)

tapa (uncountable)

  1. Seasoned slices of dried or cured meat in Filipino cuisine.
    • Cusinera serves stupendous silog (traditional Filipino breakfast, $5.61) — eggs with garlic rice and a protein of your choice, such as daing (crispy dried fish), longaniza (juicy, garlicky pork sausage) and tapa (cured beef steak).2021 February 27, Rebecca King, “Bountiful Bergenfield”, in Daily Record, volume 34, number 92, Rockaway, N.J., →OCLC, page 2D, column 1

Examples of tapa in a sentence

  • Four or five types of a la carte tacos and tapas, like the shrimp doughnut, are planned.
  • Aside from the pork chop, there’s also beef tapa, pork tocino, and daing na bangus.
  • Picky bits like tapas are just as good.

All 12 example sentences with tapa

Synonyms of tapa

Forms of tapa

pluraltapas
alternative formtappa

Origin of tapa

] Borrowed from Tongan tapa.

Borrowed from Spanish tapa. Doublet of tap.

Borrowed from Tagalog tapa.

Words that rhyme with tapa

Questions about tapa

What does tapa mean?
Tapa means a kind of cloth prepared by the Polynesians from the inner bark of the paper mulberry.
What part of speech is tapa?
Tapa is a noun.
How do you pronounce tapa?
Tapa is pronounced /ˈtɑːpə/.
What is the plural of tapa?
The plural of tapa is tapas.

Words near tapa in the dictionary

  1. tap-tackles
  2. tap-tackling
  3. tap-tap
  4. Tap-tub
  5. tap-water
  6. tapa
  7. Tapachula
  8. Tapachultec
  9. Tapachulteca
  10. tapacolo
  11. tapacolos

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tapa (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-tapa.wav.

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