Meanings
- Hello, hi.
Synonyms: good morning, good day, good evening, good morrow, greetings, heaveno, hello, hello there
- Bye, goodbye.
Synonyms: adieu, adios, aloha, arrivederci, auf Wiedersehen, au revoir, badbye, BCNU
plural ciaos
- A greeting or farewell using the word "ciao".
[…] he excused himself, disappearing in a cloud of ciaos and operatic Italian.
2010, Robert V. Camuto, Palmento: A Sicilian Wine Odyssey, page 161 more example
You hear more ciaos than hellos. Guests play bocce ball on the beach and dine on Italian and some Bahamian cuisine. Because of its strong Continental overlay, the cuisine is better here than at your typical Grand Bahama hotel.
2007, Darwin Porter, Danforth Prince, Bahamas For Dummies, page 196
Synonyms & antonyms
interjectionHello, hi.
interjectionBye, goodbye.
More synonyms by meaning
nounan acknowledgment that can be used to say hello or goodbye (aloha is Hawaiian and ciao is Italian)
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*ḱlewH-der.?
- Proto-Slavic*slov-
- Proto-Slavic*Slov-?
- Proto-Slavic*slověninъ
- Ancient GreekΣκλαβηνός (Sklabēnós)
- Medieval GreekΣκλᾰ́βος (Sklắbos)
- Late LatinSclavus
- Medieval Latinsclavus
- Venetans-ciao, sciavo
- Italianciao
- Englishciao
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.
More words from Italian, Venetan, Medieval Latin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Arabic تْشَاو
- تْشَاو (tšāw)transliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
Bulgarian ча́о
- ча́о (čáo)transliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
Chinese Mandarin ciallo
- ciallotransliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
Esperanto ĉaŭ
- ĉaŭtransliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
Estonian tšau, tsau
- tšautransliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
- tsautransliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
- tsaukatransliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
- tsaukitransliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
French tchao
- tchaotransliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
German tschau
- tschautransliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
Hebrew צַ׳אוּ
- צַ׳אוּ (tshau)transliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
Hungarian csaó
- csaótransliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
Japanese チャオ
- チャオ (chao)transliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
Portuguese tchau
- tchautransliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
Russian ча́о
- ча́о (čáo)transliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
Spanish chao
- chaotransliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
Ukrainian ча́о
- ча́о (čáo)transliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with ciao
All rhymes →Sounds the same
Anagrams
Cite this entry
ciao. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ciao
“ciao.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ciao. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “ciao,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/ciao.
Source: ciao on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.