bu

bu

1. Abbreviation of bushel, a unit of weight or dry measure.
2. Clipping of bureau.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

• UB

bu

1. rice
2. food in general

   Ka lheuh pajôh bu?

   Have you eaten yet?

bu

1. night

• Ross, M. & Næss, Å. (2007), “An Oceanic origin for Äiwoo, the language of the Reef Islands?”, in Oceanic Linguistics, volume 46, number 2. Cited in: "Äiwoo" in Greenhill, S.J., Blust, R., & Gray, R.D. (2008). The Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database: From Bioinformatics to Lexomics. Evolutionary Bioinformatics, 4:271–283.

• IPA^(key): /mbu/

bu

1. water

• John R. Roberts, Namia and Amanab Grammar Essentials (1992, SIL)

bú

1. dog (canine)

• Africana Marburgensia (1973)

From Proto-Turkic *bū (“this”)^[1] Compare Old Turkic 𐰉𐰆 (b¹u /⁠bu⁠/, “this”).

• IPA^(key): /bu/

• Audio:

  (file)

bu

1. this, these

   Bu uşaqlar məktəbə gedirlər. ― These kids are going to school.

   Mən bu uşağın atası deyiləm. ― I am not the father of this child.

• When used as a determiner modifying nouns, bu is not declined for case and number, as opposed to when it is used as a pronoun (see below).

bu

1. this

   Bunu bura kim gətirib? ― Who brought this here?.

   Ya bunlarla əməkdaşlıq etmək lazımdır, ya onlarla. Hamısı ilə yox.

   We should collaborate either with these or with those. Not with all.

2. he, she

• o (“that”)

bu

1. water

• William Eckermann, A Descriptive Grammar of the Bukawa Language of the Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea (2007)

From Proto-Turkic *bū (“this”).

bu

1. this

From Latin bōs, bovem.

bu m (plural buč)

1. ox

bu

1. imperative of bue

• IPA^(key): /by/

• Audio (Canada (Shawinigan)):

  (file)

• Homophones: bue, bues, bus, but, bût

bu (feminine bue, masculine plural bus, feminine plural bues)

1. past participle of boire

   J'ai bu deux verres de vin. - I have drunk two glasses of wine.

   As-tu bu? - Have you been drinking?

bu

1. water

• Cornelis L. Voorhoeve, Languages of Irian Jaya Checklist (1975, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics), page 111

From Portuguese vós. Cognate with Kabuverdianu bo.

bu

1. you (second person singular).

• From Djerma bu.

• IPA^(key): /bu/

bu

1. dead

• Lorenzo Dow Turner, Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect (1969)

Clipping of ibu.

bu (plural bu-bu)

1. (slightly informal, between two speakers) mam

Inherited from Proto-Edoid *ɓu.

bu

1. to be plentiful, to be abundant.

• ibuobu

From Japanese 歩 (bu).

• IPA^(key): /ˈbu/
• Rhymes: -u
• Hyphenation: bù

bu m (invariable)

1. a unit of length equal to 1.818 metres (歩)
2. a unit or area equal to 3.306 metres² (歩)

From Japanese 分 (bu).

• IPA^(key): /ˈbu/
• Rhymes: -u
• Hyphenation: bù

bu m (invariable)

1. a tenth (decimal) (分)

bu

1. water

• Otto Dempwolff's Grammar of the Jabêm Language in New Guinea (published 2005)

bu

1. The hiragana syllable ぶ (bu) or the katakana syllable ブ (bu) in Hepburn romanization.

bu

1. water

• Cornelis L. Voorhoeve, Languages of Irian Jaya Checklist (1975, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics), page 115

bu

1. water

• Cornelis L. Voorhoeve, Languages of Irian Jaya Checklist (1975, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics), page 111

bu

1. second-person singular passive of byś
2. third-person singular passive of byś

• buwu

Inherited from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *bubu, from Proto-Austronesian *bubu.

• IPA^(key): /bu/, [ɓu]
• Hyphenation: bu

bu (Lontara spelling ᨅᨘ)

1. fish trap

• A. A. Cense (2024), Makassaars-Nederlands woordenboek‎^[1], Brill, →DOI

• IPA^(key): /bu/

bu

1. mother

• ibu (full)
• emak

From Arabic أَبُو (ʔabū), construct state of أَب (ʔab, “father”).

• IPA^(key): /buː/
• Rhymes: -uː

bu m (plural abwa or but, feminine omm)

1. (obsolete) father

   Synonym: missier

• The word had the same syntactic constraints as ħu (“brother”), which compare.
• As in Arabic, the word was often used figuratively to associate a person with some object or activity. Therefore, in the remaining compounds bu typically means “the one with...”, “the one that is...”, “the one who always...”, rather than literally “father”.

bu

1. nonstandard spelling of bū
2. nonstandard spelling of bú
3. nonstandard spelling of bǔ
4. nonstandard spelling of bù

• Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.

bu

1. water

• Cornelis L. Voorhoeve, Languages of Irian Jaya Checklist (1975, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics), page 111

• bou

Inherited from Old High German bū, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *būą. From būwen.

• IPA^(key): (before 13^th CE) /ˈbuː/

bū m or n

1. building

   Dem manne ist baʒ mit bouwe dan er mit swerten houwe ab den vînden ritters prîs.

   (please add an English translation of this usage example)

• German: Bau

• Köbler, Gerhard (2014), “bū”, in Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch (in German), 3rd edition

From Proto-Kuki-Chin *buu (“nest”).

bu

1. nest
2. bunch

• Lorrain, J. Herbert (1940), “bu”, in Dictionary of the Lushai language, Calcutta: Asiatic Society

bu

1. water

• Cornelis L. Voorhoeve, Languages of Irian Jaya Checklist (1975, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics), page 111

From Proto-Kuki-Chin *ɓuu, from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *pru(w).

bu

1. nest

• Matu (Chin) Dictionary by Ropna Saruum, Matupi 2007

From Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *buhək, from Proto-Austronesian *bukəS.

bu (mutated form mbu)

1. hair
2. fur
3. feather

• Sundermann, Heinrich. 1905. Niassisch-deutsches Wörterbuch. Moers: Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen, p. 37.

bu

1. water

• Cornelis L. Voorhoeve, Languages of Irian Jaya Checklist (1975, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics), page 110

bu

1. past participle of baithe

• IPA^(key): /bʉː/

From Old Norse búa (“to prepare, finish, make preparations, equip”), from Proto-Germanic *būaną. Cognate with Old English būan, English buwa, Old Saxon būan and Old High German būan (whence German bauen).

bu (present tense bur, past tense budde, past participle butt/budd, passive infinitive buast, present participle buande, imperative bu)

1. (intransitive) to live (have permanent residence), stay
2. (intransitive) to be, to dwell, to be in
3. (transitive) to prepare

From Old Norse bú n, from Proto-Germanic *būą n (“building, dwelling”).

bu n (definite singular buet, indefinite plural bu, definite plural bua)

1. an estate, belongings

• bu (verb)
• byggja, byggje, bygga, bygge (verb)

From Old Norse búð, from Proto-Germanic *bōþō. Akin to English booth.

• bud (non-standard since 1917)

bu f (definite singular bua, indefinite plural buer, definite plural buene)

2. booth, stall, small storage room or building
3. (rare) a shop or a workshop

From English boo.

bu

1. boo! Used to indicate derision or disapproval.

• bua, bue (verb)

• “bu” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• -bu, ub.

• IPA^(key): /buː/
• Rhymes: -ū

bū

1. neuter nominative/accusative singular of beġen

bu oblique singular, m (oblique plural bus, nominative singular bus, nominative plural bu)

1. chest; thorax

• Frédéric Godefroy (1880–1902), “bu”, in Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle […], Paris: F[riedrich] Vieweg; Émile Bouillon, →OCLC.

bu

1. (woman's) breast

• transnewguinea.org, citing McElhanon and Voorhoeve (1970), Shaw (1973) and Shaw (1986)
• Possible Cognates Between Kamula and Pa, chart 10, page 16, in Papers in New Guinea Linguistics, issues 17-20 (1990)

bu

1. fur

From Proto-Khasian *buː, from Proto-Mon-Khmer *ʔbuuʔ; related to ymbu (“breast”). Cognate with Khmer បៅ (baw), Old Mon 'bow (whence modern Mon မဴ), Vietnamese bú.

• IPA^(key): /bu/

bu

1. to suck, to suckle

Onomatopoeic.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbu/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -u
• Syllabification: bu

bu

1. an onomatopoeic interjection imitating the sound of crying, usually written with two or more 'u's

• bu in Polish dictionaries at PWN

bu!

1. boo (loud exclamation intended to scare someone)

• “bu”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

bu

1. past participle of avér (“to have”)

Onomatopoeic.

bu

1. sound made by an ox
2. hoot; sound made by an owl

bu

1. bow (weapon for shooting arrows)

From Proto-Turkic *bū.

bu (3rd person possessive [please provide], plural [please provide])

1. this

Ma, Chengjun; Han, Lianye; Ma, Weisheng (December 2010), “bu”, in 米娜瓦尔 艾比布拉 (Minavar Abibra), editor, 撒维汉词典 (Sāwéihàncídiǎn) [Salar-Uyghur-Chinese dictionary] (in Chinese), 1st edition, Beijing, →ISBN

From the older form budh, from Old Irish ba.

• IPA^(key): /pu/, /pə/
• Hyphenation: bu

bu

1. past/conditional of is

• Before a word beginning with a vowel or fh, the form b' is used.

• Mark, Colin (2003), “bu”, in The Gaelic–English dictionary, London: Routledge, →ISBN, page 96

bu (Tifinagh spelling ⴱⵓ)

1. alternative spelling of bu-

bu

1. water

• H. K. J. Cowan, Grammar of the Sentani Language (1965, ’s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff)

bu (Cyrillic spelling бу)

1. (Kajkavian) third-person singular future of biti

• IPA^(key): /ˈbu/ [ˈbu]
• Rhymes: -u
• Syllabification: bu

bu

1. boo!

• “bu”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

• IPA^(key): /bʉː/
• Rhymes: -ʉː

bu

1. boo; a loud exclamation intended to scare someone, usually a child.

   Bu! Blev du rädd?

   Boo! Were you scared?

2. boo; an exclamation used to indicate derision or disapproval of what has just occurred.

• bua
• säga varken bu eller bä (“say neither this nor that (not express an opinion)”)

• bu in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• bu in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• bu in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

bu

1. water

• Kenneth Gregerson, Margaret Hartzler, Towards a Reconstruction of Proto-Tabla-Sentani Phonology, Oceanic Linguistics, volume 26, numéro 1/2, 1987, pages 1-29, page 7

Cognate with Persian بو (bu).

bu

1. smell

bu

1. rice

• bular (“famine”)

• Chungkham Yashwanta Singh (2002), Tarao Grammar (in Tarao)

Cognate with Persian بو (bu).

bu

1. smell

From Proto-Kuki-Chin *ɓuu, from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *pru(w).

bu

1. nest

• Zomi Ordbog based on the work of D.L. Haokip

From Ottoman Turkish بو (bu, “this”), from Old Anatolian Turkish بو (bu, “this”), from Proto-Turkic *bū (“this”). Compare Old Turkic 𐰉𐰆 (b¹u /⁠bu⁠/, “this”).

• IPA^(key): /bu/

• Audio:

  (file)

bu

1. this

   Bu bir ev. ― This is a house.

   Bunu sevmedim. ― I did not like this.

   Bunlar benim kitaplarım. ― These are my books.

bu

1. this

   Bu kitaplar benim. ― These books are mine.

• bugün
• bunca
• bunlu
• bunsuz

• şu
• o

bu

1. second/third-person singular passive of być

Inherited from Chagatai بو (bū /⁠bu⁠/, “this”), from Proto-Turkic *bū (“this”). Cognate with Uyghur بۇ / bu / бу; Turkish bu, etc.

• IPA^(key): /bu/, [bʊ]
• Hyphenation: bu

bu (plural bular)

1. this (demonstrative pronoun used to indicate a thing in the immediate vicinity of the speaker)

   Antonym: u

bu

1. this

   Antonym: u

   Bu sahifada hozircha hech qanday matn yoʻq.

   There is currently no text in this page. / This page currently has no text.

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [ʔɓu˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [ʔɓʊw˧˧]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [ʔɓʊw˧˧]

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

(classifier cái) bu • (𥮉)

1. kind of chicken coop

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

bu • (𡜵, 哺, 󰊿)

1. (uncommon, rustic Northern Vietnam) mom; mother
   • 1925, Nguyễn Lân, Cậu bé nhà Quê, page 21:

     Bỗng đâu thấy có tiếng trẻ vừa khóc vừa gọi ầm ỹ: «Bu ơi !, bu ơi !, bu dậy đi !, bu ơi !, khổ quá giời ơi !! làm sao bu tôi không thưa thế này, bu ơi !»

     Suddenly there was a loud child's wail: "Mom! Please wake up! Mom! Oh god! Why aren't you answering me mom!"

• mẹ, mạ, mệ, má, bầm

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• (Northern Vietnam) bâu (diphthongized)

bu • (咆, 蚫)

1. (Central Vietnam, Southern Vietnam) to assemble, to gather into one place

From *dvu, related to Tajik ду (du).

bu

1. two

• (North Wales) IPA^(key): /bɨː/
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /biː/

bu

1. third-person singular preterite of bod

bu

1. knee

• IPA^(key): /bu˧/

bu

1. (transitive) to hide

• IPA^(key): /bu˧˥/

bú

1. nest
2. cottage, hut

• IPA^(key): /bu˧˩/

bù

1. cooked rice

• Chungkham Yashawanta Singh; Lukram Himmat (2013), A Descriptive Grammar of Zou, Canchipur: Manipur University, page 62