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pho

UK /fəʊ/noun

pho is a noun meaning “A Vietnamese soup with a beef base, typically served with rice noodles and optionally beef or chicken” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled P-H-O and has one syllable, and it appears about once in every 1 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of pho is phos.

What does pho mean?

noun

  1. 1

    A Vietnamese soup with a beef base, typically served with rice noodles and optionally beef or chicken.

    PHO is the name of an Annamese soup held in high esteem. It is made with beef, a veal bone, onions, a bayleaf, salt, and pepper, and a small teaspoon of nuoc-man, a typically Annamese condiment which is used in practically all their dishes.

noun

as phở
  1. 1

    Alternative spelling of pho (“Vietnamese soup”).

noun

as PHO
  1. 1

    Abbreviation of partially hydrogenated oil.

  2. 2

    Abbreviation of potentially hazardous object.

interjection

  1. 1

    archaicExpressing dismissive contempt.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce pho?

  • UK /fəʊ/
  • UK /fɜː/
  • UK /fʌ/

As an interjection (“Expressing dismissive contempt”): /foʊ/, /fʌ/.

Pho has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Flame,_not_lame-pho.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of pho

  • phos plural
  • phở
  • foh
  • phoh

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is pho?

Pho appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 32,798th 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).

Words people confuse with pho

Sounds like: faux, foe (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Pho in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

In the sense Vietnamese soup:

LanguageWords
Frenchpho, phở
GermanPhở, Pho
Portuguesephở, pho
Spanishphở, pho

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 pho come from?

Borrowed from Vietnamese phở.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).