How to Say "Cream" in Chinese

奶油

nǎiyóu

In Chinese, cream is translated as 奶油 (nǎiyóu). Wiktionary also lists 乳脂 (rǔzhī).

Meaning: fatty part of milk (noun)

Ways to say it

“cream” in Chinese
Chinese	Romanization (Wiktionary)
奶油	nǎiyóu
乳脂	rǔzhī

奶油 is the standard term used for the culinary dairy product. It is also used as a prefix to describe cream-colored items, such as 奶油色 (cream color).

The word 奶油 is a compound of 奶, meaning milk and 油, meaning oil or fat.

奶油 is the common word used when talking about food and cooking. In contrast, 乳脂 is a more technical or scientific term used to refer to milk fat.

In written Chinese, particularly in Hong Kong and other Cantonese-speaking regions, the term 忌廉 is often used.

nǎiyóu

In some regional dialects, 奶油 can be used metaphorically to describe someone with a soft, pampered, or 'spoiled' personality.
The Cantonese term 忌廉 is a phonetic loanword from the French 'crème' rather than a translation of the meaning.
Because 奶油 is a compound, the word 油 can be swapped to create terms like 黄油 for 'butter', which literally means 'yellow oil'.

我们没奶油了。
We have run out of cream.
This sentence is useful for expressing that you have run out of 奶油.
Tatoeba #10695964 by GlossaMatik, translation #62860 by CK
你要在咖啡上加些奶油嗎？
Would you like some cream in your coffee?
This sentence is useful for asking if someone wants to add 奶油 to their coffee.
Tatoeba #1233788 by tsayng, translation #62265 by CK
湯姆喝咖啡放很多糖和奶油。
Tom puts a lot of sugar and cream in his coffee.
This sentence shows how 奶油 is used alongside sugar in a coffee context.
Tatoeba #5551159 by verdastelo9604, translation #1024310 by CK
请给我一些奶油做蛋糕。
Please give me some cream for making a cake.
品尝我们的新鲜忌廉蛋挞。
Try our fresh cream egg tarts.
孩子们，我做了一些鲜奶油蛋糕，你们要来尝一下吗？
Kids, I made some fresh cream cake, would you like to taste it?
4 more sentences on Tatoeba

A man and a woman are sharing a dessert at a cafe.

晓雯 Xiaowen

志强，你想吃这块奶油蛋糕吗？
Zhìqiáng, nǐ xiǎng chī zhè kuài nǎiyóu dàngāo ma?
Zhiqiang, do you want to eat this cream cake?
志强 Zhiqiang

好啊，我也很喜欢奶油。
Hǎo a, wǒ yě hěn xǐhuān nǎiyóu.
Sure, I really like cream too.
晓雯 Xiaowen

这里的奶油看起来很新鲜。
Zhèlǐ de nǎiyóu kàn qǐlái hěn xīnxiān.
The cream here looks very fresh.
志强 Zhiqiang

晓雯，你选对了。
Xiǎowén, nǐ xuǎn duì le.
Xiaowen, you made a good choice.

Sources

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