mooncake
moon·cake/ˈmunkeɪk/noun
mooncake is spelled M-O-O-N-C-A-K-E: 8 letters and 2 syllables (moon·cake). It appears about once in every 18 million words in written English, the 127,184th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, mooncake means “A rich, dense Chinese pastry traditionally filled with lotus seed paste and nowadays with a variety of other fillings, usually eaten during the…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of mooncake is mooncakes.
How many letters and syllables are in mooncake?
| Letters | 8: M-O-O-N-C-A-K-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: moon·cake |
| In writing | about once in every 18 million words; the 127,184th 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 mooncake?
Mooncake appears about once in every 18 million words in written English, the 127,184th 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).
How do you pronounce mooncake?
- UK /ˈmuːnkeɪk/
- US /ˈmunkeɪk/
Mooncake has 2 syllables, split moon·cake in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-mooncake.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of mooncake
- mooncakes plural
- moon cake
- moon-cake
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does mooncake mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A rich, dense Chinese pastry traditionally filled with lotus seed paste and nowadays with a variety of other fillings, usually eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival (on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar; early September to early October).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Mooncake in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense Chinese pastry usually eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | gâteau de lune |
| German | Mondkuchen |
| Portuguese | bolo lunar |
| Spanish | pastel de luna |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does mooncake come from?
From moon + cake, a calque of Mandarin 月餅 /月饼 (yuèbíng, “mooncake”), from 月 (yuè, “moon”) + 餅 /饼 (bíng, “pastry; biscuit, cookie”), probably because the pastry’s traditional round shape resembles the full moon visible during the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).