拉麵 / 拉面
lāmiàn
In Chinese, ramen is expressed as 拉麵 / 拉面 (lāmiàn). If unsure, use 拉麵 / 拉面. Wiktionary also lists 日式拉麵 / 日式拉面 (Rìshì lāmiàn) and 日本拉麵 / 日本拉面 (Rìběn lāmiàn).
Meaning: soup noodles of wheat, with various ingredients (Chinese-Japanese style) (noun)
Ways to say it
| Chinese | Romanization (Wiktionary) |
|---|---|
| 拉麵 / 拉面 | lāmiàn |
| 日式拉麵 / 日式拉面 | Rìshì lāmiàn |
| 日本拉麵 / 日本拉面 | Rìběn lāmiàn |
The term refers to soup noodles made of wheat with various ingredients, specifically in the Chinese-Japanese style.
What does it mean word for word?
The term 拉麵 (lāmiàn) literally means 'pulled noodles', which refers to the traditional method of stretching dough into long strands.
Which one should you use?
While 拉麵 can refer to any hand-pulled noodle soup, adding 日式 to the front of the phrase, as in 日式拉麵 / 日式拉面, specifies the Japanese style of ramen. 日本拉麵 / 日本拉面 can also be used to denote Japanese ramen.
Is it said differently in some regions?
In Hong Kong, the term 拉麵 is commonly used to refer to Japanese-style ramen.
How do you pronounce it?
The romanization is lāmiàn.
Did you know?
- While the phrase literally means 'pulled noodles', the Japanese version of 拉麵 is rarely pulled by hand and is instead cut from sheets of dough.
- While 拉麵 (lāmiàn) specifically refers to the 'pulled' technique, the word 麵 (miàn) is a homophone for 'face' (臉 / 面), which leads to many linguistic puns in noodle culture.
- While the Chinese 拉麵 emphasizes the stretching action, the English word 'ramen' is a phonetic transcription of the Japanese pronunciation of these same Chinese characters.
Examples in context
- 请给我一碗拉面。Please give me a bowl of ramen.
- 我们今晚吃方便面吧！Let's have instant ramen noodles tonight!
Sources
- Wiktionary, “ramen” translations, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
