Phrase guide

Lhasa apso

noun · 2 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

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  • General-American: /ˈlɑːsə ˈæpsoʊ/

1

noun

Meaning 1

A particular breed of dog, Tibetan in origin.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

a breed of terrier having a long heavy coat raised in Tibet as watchdogs

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: Lhasa

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: terrier

History

Etymology

From Tibetan ལྷ་ས (lha sa) + Tibetan ཨོག་ཚོམ (og tshom) / ཨག་ཚོམ (ag tshom, “goatee, chin-beard”). Alternatively, from Tibetan ལྷ་ས (lha sa) + ར་ཕོ (ra pho, “billy goat”) OR from Tibetan ལྷ་ས (lha sa) + འབ་ ('ab, “to bark”) + སོ་ (so, “guard, watchman”).

Across languages

Translations

11 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Chinese Cantonese: 拉薩犬 /拉萨犬 (laai1 saat3 hyun2) — dog
  • Chinese Mandarin: 拉薩犬 /拉萨犬 (lāsàquǎn) — dog
  • Estonian: lhasa apso — dog
  • Finnish: lhasa apso — dog
  • Finnish: apso — dog
  • French: Lhassa apso — dog
  • Japanese: ラサ・アプソ (rasa-apuso) — dog
  • Portuguese: lhasa apso — dog
  • Russian: Лхасский апсо (Lxasskij apso) — dog
  • Swedish: lhasa apso — dog
  • Vietnamese: Lhasa apso — dog