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Glite Dictionary
pak choi

pak choi

4.4
A Chinese vegetable with crisp white stalks and dark green leaves used in Asian cooking
  • noun
  • /pɑk tʃɔɪ/
translation icon : pak choi
  • The farmer harvested a fresh batch of pak choi for the local market.
  • pak choi, kale, and cabbage
  • Chinese pak choi
  • can be grown pak-choi

Examples

  • Greenhouse #2 supplied leafy vegetables: lettuce, chard, pak choi, kale, and cabbage.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • In stir-fry dishes, pak choi adds a nice crunch and a mild flavor.

  • My favorite recipe features pak choi sautéed with garlic and ginger.

Synonyms

choy
vspak choi
5 3.7

A leafy green vegetable like bok choy used in Asian cooking

is one specific member of that group with crisp white stalks
bok choy
vspak choi
3 4.0

A leafy Chinese cabbage with white stalks and dark green leaves used in Asian cooking

is the same vegetable but called by a different common name
pakchoi
vspak choi
7.4

An Asian vegetable with crisp white stems and dark green leaves used in stir-fries and salads

is the same but written as a single word spelling variant
Brassica rapa chinensis
vspak choi
  • Specialized
5.8

A leafy green vegetable with white stems and dark green leaves called bok choy used in Asian cooking

refers to the same plant using a nontechnical culinary name
Chinese white cabbage
vspak choi
2.6

A leafy vegetable with white stalks and dark green leaves used in Asian cooking

is the same vegetable but named with a different regional term
chop-suey greens
vspak choi
  • Philippine
6.3

A leafy green vegetable used in Asian cooking like bok choy

is a particular type with white stalks and dark green leaves

Surface Forms

pak choi singular
pak chois plural

Morphology

pak + choi

This is a loanword from Chinese (Cantonese) whose parts ('pak' and 'choi') are not English lexical items for a typical B1 learner, so the meaning cannot be derived from English constituents. Although in the source language the elements roughly mean 'white' + 'vegetable', that etymological transparency is not available to most learners of English, making the MWE non-compositional for them.

Etymology

Pak choi may come from Chinese words pak and choi, meaning 'white' and 'vegetable', because the plant has white crunchy stalks and dark green leaves. That's why the name is used for this crisp leafy vegetable in Asian cooking.