Standard Lemma guide

saola

noun · 1 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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  • /ˈsaʊlə/
  • /ˈsaʊˌlɑː/

1

noun

Meaning 1

A critically endangered ruminant of species Pseudoryx nghetinhensis, of Vietnam and Laos.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • 2013, C. Michele Thompson, 10: Would a saola by any other name still be a saola?, Hue-Tam Ho Tai, Mark Sidel (editors), State, Society and the Market in Contemporary Vietnam, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), page 185, The current consensus is that the saola is so rare and so solitary in terms of genetic relatives that it should be placed not only in its own separate genus (Pseudoryx) but also in its own tribe (Pseudorygini) within the subfamily Bovinae.
  • 2015, William deBuys, The Last Unicorn: A Search for One of Earth's Rarest Creatures, Hachette (Little, Brown and Company), unnumbered page, It is surprising, twenty years after saola first attracted the world's attention, that so little about the species is known.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Borrowed from Vietnamese sao la, probably from Lao ເສົາຫລ (sao la, “spindle[-horned]”) or some other Tai-Kadai language.

Across languages

Translations

15 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Chinese Mandarin: 中南大羚 (zhōngnán dàlíng) — rare ruminant of Vietnam and Laos
  • Finnish: saola — rare ruminant of Vietnam and Laos
  • White Hmong: saht-supahp — rare ruminant of Vietnam and Laos
  • Japanese: サオラ (saora) — rare ruminant of Vietnam and Laos
  • Portuguese: saola — rare ruminant of Vietnam and Laos
  • Russian: са́ола — rare ruminant of Vietnam and Laos
  • Russian: сао́ла (sáola, saóla) — rare ruminant of Vietnam and Laos
  • Spanish: saola — rare ruminant of Vietnam and Laos
  • Spanish: buey de vu quang — rare ruminant of Vietnam and Laos
  • Swedish: vuquangoxe — rare ruminant of Vietnam and Laos
  • Swedish: vietnamantilop — rare ruminant of Vietnam and Laos
  • Thai: ซาวลา (saola) — rare ruminant of Vietnam and Laos
  • Ukrainian: са́ола (sáola) — rare ruminant of Vietnam and Laos
  • Ukrainian: сао́ла (saóla) — rare ruminant of Vietnam and Laos
  • Vietnamese: sao la — rare ruminant of Vietnam and Laos