Teochew

/tiˈoʊt͡ʃuː/

Teochew proper noun: a variety of Southern Min Chinese, spoken in the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong and its diaspora.

Proper noun

Teochew

A variety of Southern Min Chinese, spoken in the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong and its diaspora.
- […] Lim Peng Siang, Low Kim Pong, Teo Sian Keng and Lee Choon Guan were leaders of Fukien dialect group; Lam Kim Seng, Chua Tse Yong were Teochew leaders; Loke Yew and Lam Wai Fong were Cantonese leaders.1995, Yen Ching-hwang, Community and Politics: The Chinese in Colonial Singapore and Malaysia, Marshall Cavendish International, →ISBN
- 'I do not speak English,' the young man said sanguinely in Malay, then said it again in Teochew, to test the white man.2015, William L. Gibson, Singapore Yellow, Singapore: Monsoon Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 116
Synonyms:

Chaozhou
(dated, uncommon) A city in the eastern part of China's Guangdong province, now more commonly called Chaozhou.
- Fong Kai is a well known porcelain-producing center in eastern Kwangtung. It is only 8 li away from Teochow (Chaochow), and easily accessible.1955, Review of Hong Kong Chinese Press
- As mentioned previously (in Chapter II), the Huang Kang Uprising in Teochew (also known as the first Teochew Uprising) had been fermenting long before the formation of the T'ung Meng Hui.1976, Yen Ching Hwang, The Overseas Chinese and the 1911 Revolution: With special reference to Singapore and Malaya, Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, page 310
The Chaoshan region where Teochew is spoken.
- In Fukien and the Teochew region of eastern Kwangtung there are places where every man in every village within a radius of twenty miles or more bears the same surname, the clan being virtually a small nation with its own territory.1972, Austin Coates, China, India and the Ruins of Washington, page 94
- When they later moved down south to the Teochew region, their language developed into the Teochew dialect, whose tone is very similar to Minnan Huà.2007, Lee Khoon Choy, Passage Through China: This Land So Rich in Beauty, page 22

Noun

Teochew (plural Teochews or Teochew)

A person of Chaoshan heritage.
- The founding of the Four Seas Communications Bank by the leading Teochew merchants in 1907 marked the heyday of Teochew economic strength. However, the inter-war years was a period of economic regression for the Teochews.1985, Lim Keak Cheng, Social Change and the Chinese in Singapore: A Socio-economic Geography with Special Reference to Bāng Structure
- "Yes! You are Teochew. Aiyah, don't you know, our people are known for being pirates, smugglers, and greate businessmen. [The Hong Kong billionaire] Li Ka-shing is Teochew, you know!"2011, Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, A Tiger in the Kitchen: A Memoir of Food and Family, New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 9

Adjective

Teochew (not comparable)

Relating to the Chaoshan region of China or its people.
- […] when Rev. Guthrie Gamble started the first company in the southern Chinese Teochew city of Swatow […]1996, Danny Tze-Ken Wong, Our Anchor Holds: A History of the Boy's Brigade in Malaysia, 1946-1996
- My grandfather, Mr Kua Kim Par, left the Teochew city of Chaozhou circa 1896 because of the political turmoil in China with the decline of the Qing Dynasty.2014, Kua Ee Heok, Ageing Baby Boomers, Write Editions / Tusitala (RLS) Pte Ltd, →ISBN

Teochew meaning in Malay, Thai and Vietnamese

Teochew in Malay

one of the divisions of the Chinese language: bahasa Teochew

Teochew in Thai

one of the divisions of the Chinese language: แต้จิ๋ว dtɛ̂ɛ-jǐu

Teochew in Vietnamese

one of the divisions of the Chinese language: tiếng Triều Châu, tiếng Tiều

Examples of Teochew in a sentence

"I miss my family in Teochew. […] Returning to Teochew now is also not an option […]"2014, Song Cheng Miang, Teochew Red, Hokkien Green, Partridge Publishing Singapore:
Mr and Mrs Chen were from the same town in the Chaoshan (Teochew) Region and spoke the same variety of Teochew dialect.2014, Sihua Liang, Language Attitudes and Identities in Multilingual China, page 92:
Changlim in the Chaozhou (Teochew) region emerged as Amoy's rival for domination of the coastal trade.2019, Kwa Chong Guan, “Prelude to the History of the Chinese in Singapore”, in Kwa Chong Guan, Kua Bak Lim, editors, A General History Of...
However, the majority of Singaporean Teochews speak the Swatow (named after the main Teochew city in southeast China) variety.2012, Phyllis Ghim-Lian Chew, A Sociolinguistic History of Early Identities in Singapore: From Colonialism to Nationalism, Palgrave...

Synonyms of Teochew

Chaozhou

Forms of Teochew

Proper noun
alternative form	Teo Chew
alternative form	Diojiu
alternative form	Teochiu
alternative form	Tiuchiu
alternative form	Tie-chiu
alternative form	Teochow
alternative form	Chiuchow
alternative form	Chiu Chow
alternative form	Chiu Chau
alternative Thailand	Taechew
alternative Thailand	Taechiew
alternative Thailand	Taechiu
alternative Indonesia	Tio Ciu
alternative Indonesia	Tiociu
alternative form	Trieu Chau
Noun
plural	Teochews
plural	Teochew

Origin of Teochew

From Teochew 潮州 (dio⁵ ziu¹). See also Hokkien 潮州 (Tiô-chiu). Doublet of Chaozhou.

Words formed from Teochew

Teochew porridge

Questions about Teochew

What does Teochew mean?: Teochew means a variety of Southern Min Chinese, spoken in the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong and its diaspora.
What is Teochew in Malay?: Teochew in Malay is bahasa Teochew. See Teochew meaning in Malay.
How do you use Teochew in a sentence?: "I miss my family in Teochew. […] Returning to Teochew now is also not an option […]"
What part of speech is Teochew?: Teochew can be a proper noun, a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce Teochew?: Teochew is pronounced /tiˈoʊt͡ʃuː/.

Words near Teochew in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: Teochew (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: 2026-09-02

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