藜麥 / 藜麦
lai⁴ mak⁶
The English phrase "quinoa" is 藜麥 / 藜麦 (lai⁴ mak⁶) in Cantonese.
藜麥 / 藜麦 refers to the plant or grain known as Chenopodium quinoa.
Meaning: Chenopodium quinoa (noun)
How do you pronounce it?
The romanization is lai⁴ mak⁶.
Did you know?
- The character 藜 in 藜麥 refers to a genus of plants known as goosefoot or chenopods, which are common wild weeds in southern China.
- If you are looking for quinoa in a Hong Kong supermarket, you might see it labeled under the more generic term 雜糧 (zaap6 loeng4), which means 'mixed grains'.
- Because quinoa is an imported 'new' grain, some older Cantonese speakers may simply refer to it by its English name using a Cantonese accent.
Example sentences for Cantonese are not verified yet.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “quinoa” translations, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
