Standard Lemma guide

taikonaut

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

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.

  • /ˈtaɪkəˌnɔːt/
  • General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A person who travels in space for the Chinese space program; a Chinese astronaut.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Mandarin 太空 (tàikōng, “space”) + -naut, modelled after astronaut, cosmonaut, spationaut, etc. The term was coined on 19 May 1998 by Chiew Lee Yih (趙里昱 (Zhào Lǐyù)) from Malaysia, who used it first in newsgroups. Almost simultaneously, Chen Lan coined it for use in the Western media.

Across languages

Translations

29 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: تَايْكُونَات (tāykonāt) — Chinese astronaut
  • Basque: taikonauta — Chinese astronaut
  • Catalan: taikonauta — Chinese astronaut
  • Chinese Cantonese: 太空人 (taai3 hung1 jan4) — Chinese astronaut
  • Chinese: 太空人 (thài-khong-jîn) — Chinese astronaut
  • Chinese Mandarin: 太空人 (tàikōng rén) — Chinese astronaut
  • Chinese Mandarin: 宇航員 /宇航员 (yǔháng yuán) — Chinese astronaut
  • Chinese Mandarin: 航天員 /航天员 (hángtiān yuán) — Chinese astronaut
  • Chinese Mandarin: 宇宙航行員 /宇宙航行员 (yǔzhòu hángxíng yuán) — Chinese astronaut
  • Chinese Mandarin: 太空飛行員 /太空飞行员 (tàikōng fēixíngyuán) — Chinese astronaut
  • Dutch: taikonaut — Chinese astronaut
  • Dutch: taikonaute — Chinese astronaut
  • Esperanto: tajkonaŭto — Chinese astronaut
  • Finnish: taikonautti — Chinese astronaut
  • French: taïkonaute — Chinese astronaut
  • German: Taikonaut — Chinese astronaut
  • German: Taikonautin — Chinese astronaut
  • Greek: ταϊκοναύτης (taïkonáftis) — Chinese astronaut
  • Hungarian: tajkonauta — Chinese astronaut
  • Japanese: タイコノート (taikonōto) — Chinese astronaut
  • Korean: 타이코놋 (taikonot) — Chinese astronaut
  • Navajo: wótááhgóó ałnááʼáłtʼahí — Chinese astronaut
  • Polish: tajkonauta — Chinese astronaut
  • Portuguese: taikonauta — Chinese astronaut
  • Romanian: taikonaut — Chinese astronaut
  • Russian: тайкона́вт (tajkonávt) — Chinese astronaut
  • Spanish: taikonauta — Chinese astronaut
  • Swedish: taikonaut — Chinese astronaut
  • Turkish: taykonot — Chinese astronaut