tai

T1A1I1
/taɪ/

noun

A fish, the Japanese bream.

CommonScrabble 3

Meanings

tai1

noun
  1. A fish, the Japanese bream.

Tai2

proper noun
  1. A local government area of Rivers State, Nigeria.
  2. A female given name from Chinese.
  3. A branch of the Tai-Kadai language family, including Thai, Lao, Shan, and Zhuang.
nounTai (plural Tais or Tai)

plural Tais

  1. A descendant of speakers of a common proto-Tai language, including subpopulations which no longer speak a Tai language.

    The Tais first appeared in history in Yunnan, and from thence they migrated into Upper Burma. The earliest swarms appear to have entered that tract about two thousand years ago, and were small in number.

    1901, Census of India

Tai3

proper noun
  1. historicalAn ancient city and former polity under the Xia dynasty in present-day Wugong, Xianyang, Shaanxi, China.
    1 more example

    The first ancestor of Zhou tribe was Hou Ji who originally lived in Tai (today's Wugong of Shaanxi), and duke of Liu, his successor, moved to Bin (today's Bin county of Shaanxi), and then passed down to the lord of Dan.[…] Qi later settled down in Tai (southwest of Wugong county of today's Shaanxi), which was located the center of the fertile land of Weibei Plain.[…] The poem Duke Liu, which only has 6 sections and 234 Chinese characters in total, vividly narrates duke Liu's moving from Tai (today's Wugong county, Shaanxi province) to Bin (today's Binxian county, Shaanxi province) and big events regarding him in a very organized structure.

    2016, M. Yong et al., “Originating Period of Tourism Culture”, in The General History of Chinese Tourism Culture, →OCLC, archived from the original on 21 Jul 2023, pages 11, 26, 27
  2. A surname from Chinese.

Tai4

proper noun
  1. alternativeAlternative form of Dai.

    Kuang-wu 廣武 lay in the southwestern part of today's Tai County 代縣, Shansi; Wu and Lu, 93.3392n.

    1994 [145–86 BCE], Ssu-ma Ch’ien, edited by William Nienhauser, The Grand Scribe's Records, Indiana University Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 114
    2 more examples

    Five short stories concern land reform, elections in the border region, and anti-Japanese activities:[...] e) “Feng-pao Tai-hsien-chʻeng” 風暴代縣城 (Storms in Tai County). A twenty-year-old anti-Japanese hero does not surrender even when he is captured and executed.

    1979, Meishi Tsai, Contemporary Chinese Novels and Short Stories, 1949–1974: An Annotated Bibliography, Harvard University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 142

    Kou-chu Mountains: today called Yen-men Mountains, a mountain range located to the southeast of Ma-yi, near present-day Tai county, in Shansi (Chung-kuo li-shih ti-t'u chi, 2:17-18, 3-10).

    2002, Ancient China and Its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History, →OCLC, page 190

Tai5

proper noun
  1. A surname.
    2 more examples

    The company on Nov. 3 last year asked an employee surnamed Tai (戴) to deliver 10 barrels of silane — a flammable alkaline substance — from Pingtung County’s Chaojhou Township (潮州) to Sinyuan Township (新園) without telling him what the cargo would be, Tseng said at a news conference on behalf of Tai, adding that the company did not even have a license to deliver the dangerous substance.

    2017 November 7, Lin Chia-nan, “Kerry logistics accused of work-related injury cover-up”, in Taipei Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 06 Nov 2017, Taiwan News, page 3

    Katherine Tai, President Biden’s pick for United States trade representative, promised lawmakers during her confirmation hearing on Thursday that she would work with Congress to help reinvigorate the economy and aggressively enforce American trade rules against China, Mexico and other trading partners. Ms. Tai, in testimony before the Senate Finance Committee, said her background challenging China’s unfair trade practices in the Obama administration had given her knowledge of “the opportunities and limitations in our existing toolbox.”

    2021 February 25, Ana Swanson, “Biden’s Pick for Trade Representative Promises Break With Past Policy”, in The New York Times, sourced from Washington, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 28 Feb 2021, Economy

TAI6

noun
  1. abbreviationinitialismchemistryInitialism of trifluoromethylaminoindane.
  2. abbreviationinitialismInitialism of technical analysis indicator.
proper noun
  1. abbreviationAbbreviation of Frenchtemps atomique international (“International Atomic Time”), a high-precision atomic coordinate time standard.
  2. abbreviationinitialismbusinessInitialism of Toshiba America, Inc..
  3. abbreviationinitialismspace industryInitialism of Turkish Aerospace Industries.
  4. abbreviationinitialismaeronauticsInitialism of Thai Airways International.
  5. abbreviationhistoricalinitialismaeronauticsInitialism of Transports Aériens Intercontinentaux, a now defunct French airline.

Synonyms & antonyms

adjectiveof or relating to or characteristic of Thailand or its people

adjectiveof or relating to the languages of the Thai people

adjectiveof or relating to Thailand

nouna native or inhabitant of Thailand

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

tai · noun

From Japanese 鯛 (たい, tai).

Full word history & related roots →

Tai · proper noun

  1. Chinese邰
  2. EnglishTai

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 邰 (Tái) and 斄 /𭤎 (Tái).

Full word history & related roots →

Tai · proper noun

  1. Chinese代
  2. EnglishTai

From the Wade–Giles romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 代 (dài).

Full word history & related roots →

Tai · proper noun

  1. Mandarin戴
  2. EnglishTai

From the Wade–Giles romanization of the Mandarin 戴 (Dài), as well as from its Cantonese pronunciation Daai³.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Chinese Mandarin 邰, 斄 /𭤎
  • 邰 (Tái)ancient town and state
  • 斄 /𭤎 (Tái)ancient town and state
Finnish thaikieli
  • thaikielilanguage family
French taï
  • taïlanguage family
Thai ไท
  • ไท (tai)language family
Vietnamese Thái
  • Tháilanguage family

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with tai

All rhymes →

Sounds the same

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

tai. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tai

MLA

“tai.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tai. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tai,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tai.

Source: tai on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.