Standard Lemma guide

ciao

intj · noun · 4 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /t͡ʃaʊ/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -aʊ
  • homophone: chow
  • CMU ARPABET: CH AW1 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

intj

Meaning 1

Hello, hi.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: ciao, good morning, good day, good evening, good morrow, greetings, heaveno, hello, hello there, heyday, hi, hi there, hiya, hey hey, heyo, ho there, how, how are you, salaam, salaam alaikum, salutations, shalom, shalom aleichem, sup, wassup, well met, what's doing, what's going on, what's new, what's up, yello, yo, g'day, hey, howdy, cheerio, how's it going, top of the morning, namaste, wagwan, ayubowan, privet, howzit, alright, alright me babber, alright me lover, ay up me duck, ey up, hallo, hullo, wotcher, aloha, ayo

Antonyms: none provided

2

intj

Meaning 2

Bye, goodbye.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: adieu, adios, aloha, arrivederci, auf Wiedersehen, au revoir, badbye, BCNU, bye, bye-bye, catch you later, ciao, cheerio, cheers, cheery-bye, chur, farewell, good day, Godspeed, hasta la vista, baby, have a nice day, hooroo, I have to love you and leave you, keep it real, late, later, laters, peace out, sayonara, see ya, see you, see you after, see you in the funny papers, see you later, see you later alligator, shalom, smell ya later, smell you later, so long, take care, ta-ta, tatty bye, tinkety-tonk, toodle-oo, toodle-pip, toodles, TTFN, ttyl

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

A greeting or farewell using the word "ciao".

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

an acknowledgment that can be used to say hello or goodbye (aloha is Hawaiian and ciao is Italian)

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: aloha

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: acknowledgment, acknowledgement

History

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian ciao (“hello, goodbye”), from Venetan ciao (“hello, goodbye, your (humble) servant”), from Venetan s-ciao / s-ciavo (“servant, slave”), from Medieval Latin sclavus (“Slav, slave”), related also to Italian schiavo, English Slav, slave and Old Venetan S-ciavón (“Slav”), from Latin Sclavus, ultimately from Proto-Slavic *slověninъ. Not related to Vietnamese chào (“hello, goodbye”). Doublet of Slav and slave.

Across languages

Translations

21 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: تْشَاو (tšāw) — transliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
  • Bulgarian: ча́о (čáo) — transliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
  • Chinese Mandarin: ciallo — transliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
  • Esperanto: ĉaŭ — transliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
  • Estonian: tšau — transliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
  • Estonian: tsau — transliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
  • Estonian: tsauka — transliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
  • Estonian: tsauki — transliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
  • French: tchao — transliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
  • Galician: chau — transliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
  • Georgian: ჩაო (čao) — transliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
  • German: tschau — transliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
  • Hebrew: צַ׳אוּ (tshau) — transliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
  • Hungarian: csaó — transliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
  • Japanese: チャオ (chao) — transliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
  • Portuguese: tchau — transliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
  • Russian: ча́о (čáo) — transliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
  • Serbo-Croatian: ћао — transliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
  • Serbo-Croatian: ćao — transliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
  • Spanish: chao — transliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
  • Ukrainian: ча́о (čáo) — transliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell