loài

Non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese 類 (“kind; class; category”, SV: loại). Doublet of loại.

This noun used to have wider usage in the past, as compounds like loài đá (“rocks”), loài kim (“metals”) (cf. modern kim loại) were widely attested.

Unlike Chinese, Korean, and Japanese, which use 種 / 种 (chủng) for "species", Vietnamese chủng is used for "strain".

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [lwaːj˨˩]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [lwaːj˦˩]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [l⁽ʷ⁾aːj˨˩]

loài • (𩑛, 𩔗)

1. (obsolete or in certain compounds) kind; type
2. (taxonomy) species

• giống