gweilo
noun
gweilo is spelled G-W-E-I-L-O: 6 letters. It appears about once in every 83 million words in written English, the 290,185th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, gweilo means “A white person in China, (particularly) a man; a ‘foreign devil’” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of gweilo is gweilos.
How many letters and syllables are in gweilo?
| Letters | 6: G-W-E-I-L-O |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 83 million words; the 290,185th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is gweilo?
Gweilo appears about once in every 83 million words in written English, the 290,185th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Forms of gweilo
- gweilos plural
- gwailo
- kwailo
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does gweilo mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
colloquialA white person in China, (particularly) a man; a ‘foreign devil’.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does gweilo come from?
From Cantonese 鬼佬 (gwai² lou²), from 鬼 (gwai², “ghost”) + 佬 (lou², “guy, man”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).