Chai

How to spell chai

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce chai

What does chai mean?

1. nounA hot drink of black tea brewed with milk, sugar and aromatic spices such as cardamom, cinnamon and ginger.

Chai in a sentence

• The cafe near the office serves a spiced chai with cardamom and ginger.

• She simmered milk, black tea and cinnamon to make chai at home.

Where does chai come from?

Language of origin: Other

Chai is simply the word for 'tea' in Hindi and several neighbouring languages, and English borrowed it directly to name the sweet, spiced milky tea of South Asia. The trail runs much further back: the Hindi cāy descends from a northern Chinese word for tea, chá, which travelled overland along trade and caravan routes through Persia (where it became chāy) and into Russia, Turkey and India, all of which use a 'cha' style word. This is in contrast to the southern Chinese Min dialect form te, which sailed to western Europe by sea with Dutch traders and gave English its everyday word 'tea'. So 'tea' and 'chai' are ultimately the same Chinese word that split into a land route and a sea route. English speakers picked up 'chai' chiefly in the late twentieth century through Indian restaurants and coffee shops, which is why the phrase 'chai tea' literally repeats itself, meaning 'tea tea'. The simple spelling, c-h-a-i, trips people up only because the 'ai' makes a long 'eye' sound that English usually writes other ways.

How the word is built

• chai (a single root borrowed whole; from Hindi cāy 'tea')