interjection
hoa
hoh
interjection
1
An old-fashioned shout used to get someone's attention, similar to "hey" or "ho."
""Hoa!" the sailor called out across the deck."
noun
1
A term for people of Chinese descent living in Vietnam, treated there as a distinct ethnic minority.
"Many Hoa families in Vietnam have run businesses in the same neighborhoods for generations."
How to Use Hoa
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishEither an attention-grabbing shout, or the name for the Chinese ethnic minority in Vietnam.
When to use it
The interjection sense is archaic and rarely used in modern writing; the ethnic-group sense is the one most commonly encountered today, especially in discussions of Vietnamese demographics and history.
Study it as flashcards or scroll it in Flow — saved to your collection.
Test yourself on “hoa”
A quick quiz — meaning, synonyms & usage
→
Fill the Gap
Can you complete this real example?
"_____!" the sailor called out across the deck.
Etymology
The interjection is an old variant spelling of "ho." The ethnic-group sense comes from Vietnamese Hoa, itself borrowed from Chinese 華 (huá), meaning "Chinese."