"Liu" meaning in English

See Liu in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proper name

IPA: /liˈoʊ/ [surname] (note: like Mandarin;from Mandarin 劉), /liˈu/ [surname] (note: like Taishanese, Hakka, Northern Min, Hokkien, etc;from Mandarin 劉), /ˈliu̯/ [Hong-Kong] Forms: Lius [plural]
enPR: lyō [surname] (note: from Mandarin 劉) Etymology: From several Chinese surnames, including: * From Mandarin 劉 /刘 (liú). Doublet of Lau and Luu. * From Cantonese 廖 (liu⁶). Doublet of Liao. Etymology templates: {{uder|en|zh|-}} Chinese, {{der|en|cmn|劉}} Mandarin 劉 /刘 (liú), {{doublet|en|Lau|Luu}} Doublet of Lau and Luu, {{der|en|yue|廖}} Cantonese 廖 (liu⁶), {{doublet|en|Liao}} Doublet of Liao Head templates: {{en-proper noun|s}} Liu (plural Lius)
  1. A surname from Chinese.
    Sense id: en-Liu-en-name-4TuPt0~5 Categories (other): English surnames
  2. A surname from Chinese.
    A surname from Mandarin.
    Sense id: en-Liu-en-name-V3bGBVeJ Categories (other): English surnames, English entries with incorrect language header, English links with manual fragments, English undefined derivations, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 5 entries, Pages with entries, Terms with Hakka translations, Terms with Hungarian translations, Terms with Indonesian translations, Terms with Mandarin translations, Terms with Vietnamese translations, Terms with Zhuang translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 20 56 25 Disambiguation of English links with manual fragments: 24 48 27 Disambiguation of English undefined derivations: 17 62 21 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 15 67 18 Disambiguation of Pages with 5 entries: 12 22 12 13 13 13 13 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 7 14 7 18 18 18 18 Disambiguation of Terms with Hakka translations: 15 65 20 Disambiguation of Terms with Hungarian translations: 9 77 14 Disambiguation of Terms with Indonesian translations: 7 79 14 Disambiguation of Terms with Mandarin translations: 4 92 4 Disambiguation of Terms with Vietnamese translations: 15 64 21 Disambiguation of Terms with Zhuang translations: 25 50 26
  3. A surname from Chinese.
    A surname from Cantonese.
    Sense id: en-Liu-en-name-b2nZxYz7 Categories (other): English surnames, Terms with Cantonese translations Disambiguation of Terms with Cantonese translations: 2 20 78
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Related terms: (english: not to be confused; sounds different) Translations (surname 劉/刘): 劉 /刘 (lau⁴) (Chinese Cantonese), 劉 /刘 (Liú) (Chinese Mandarin), 劉 /刘 (Hakka Chinese), Liu (Hungarian), Liu (Indonesian), Lưu (Vietnamese), (Vietnamese), Liuz (Zhuang)
Disambiguation of 'surname 劉/刘': 33 34 33

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "zh",
        "3": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "Chinese",
      "name": "uder"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "cmn",
        "3": "劉"
      },
      "expansion": "Mandarin 劉 /刘 (liú)",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "Lau",
        "3": "Luu"
      },
      "expansion": "Doublet of Lau and Luu",
      "name": "doublet"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "yue",
        "3": "廖"
      },
      "expansion": "Cantonese 廖 (liu⁶)",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "Liao"
      },
      "expansion": "Doublet of Liao",
      "name": "doublet"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From several Chinese surnames, including:\n* From Mandarin 劉 /刘 (liú). Doublet of Lau and Luu.\n* From Cantonese 廖 (liu⁶). Doublet of Liao.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "Lius",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "s"
      },
      "expansion": "Liu (plural Lius)",
      "name": "en-proper noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "name",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "english": "not to be confused; sounds different",
      "translation": "not to be confused; sounds different",
      "word": "Lü"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English surnames",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              85,
              88
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2020 April 7, Peter Conrad, “Abolish Silicon Valley by Wendy Liu review – rebooting our reality”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 14 Jun 2025:",
          "text": "We now have good reason to question the pursuits of the vaunted innovators with whom Liu consorted in California – the blissed-out cultists at Google, whose only worry is over “the wrong kind of sparkling water in the microkitchens”, or the manic experts who specialise in “envisioning hyperplanes in n-dimensional space”.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A surname from Chinese."
      ],
      "id": "en-Liu-en-name-4TuPt0~5",
      "links": [
        [
          "surname",
          "surname"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English surnames",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "20 56 25",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "24 48 27",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English links with manual fragments",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "17 62 21",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English undefined derivations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "15 67 18",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "12 22 12 13 13 13 13",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 5 entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "7 14 7 18 18 18 18",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "15 65 20",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Hakka translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "9 77 14",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Hungarian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "7 79 14",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Indonesian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "4 92 4",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Mandarin translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "15 64 21",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Vietnamese translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "25 50 26",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Zhuang translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A surname from Chinese.",
        "A surname from Mandarin."
      ],
      "id": "en-Liu-en-name-V3bGBVeJ",
      "links": [
        [
          "surname",
          "surname"
        ],
        [
          "surname",
          "surname"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English surnames",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "2 20 78",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Cantonese translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A surname from Chinese.",
        "A surname from Cantonese."
      ],
      "id": "en-Liu-en-name-b2nZxYz7",
      "links": [
        [
          "surname",
          "surname"
        ],
        [
          "surname",
          "surname"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/liˈoʊ/",
      "note": "like Mandarin;from Mandarin 劉",
      "tags": [
        "surname"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/liˈu/",
      "note": "like Taishanese, Hakka, Northern Min, Hokkien, etc;from Mandarin 劉",
      "tags": [
        "surname"
      ]
    },
    {
      "note": "from Mandarin 劉",
      "other": "/ˈlu/",
      "tags": [
        "surname"
      ]
    },
    {
      "enpr": "lyō",
      "note": "from Mandarin 劉",
      "tags": [
        "surname"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈliu̯/",
      "tags": [
        "Hong-Kong"
      ]
    },
    {
      "homophone": "lew"
    },
    {
      "homophone": "lieu"
    },
    {
      "homophone": "lue (without yod-dropping)"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "_dis1": "33 34 33",
      "code": "yue",
      "lang": "Chinese Cantonese",
      "lang_code": "yue",
      "roman": "lau⁴",
      "sense": "surname 劉/刘",
      "word": "劉 /刘"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "33 34 33",
      "code": "hak",
      "lang": "Hakka Chinese",
      "lang_code": "hak",
      "sense": "surname 劉/刘",
      "word": "劉 /刘"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "33 34 33",
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "lang_code": "cmn",
      "roman": "Liú",
      "sense": "surname 劉/刘",
      "word": "劉 /刘"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "33 34 33",
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "lang_code": "hu",
      "sense": "surname 劉/刘",
      "word": "Liu"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "33 34 33",
      "code": "id",
      "lang": "Indonesian",
      "lang_code": "id",
      "sense": "surname 劉/刘",
      "word": "Liu"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "33 34 33",
      "code": "vi",
      "lang": "Vietnamese",
      "lang_code": "vi",
      "sense": "surname 劉/刘",
      "word": "Lưu"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "33 34 33",
      "code": "vi",
      "lang": "Vietnamese",
      "lang_code": "vi",
      "sense": "surname 劉/刘",
      "word": "劉"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "33 34 33",
      "code": "za",
      "lang": "Zhuang",
      "lang_code": "za",
      "sense": "surname 劉/刘",
      "word": "Liuz"
    }
  ],
  "word": "Liu"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English links with manual fragments",
    "English proper nouns",
    "English terms derived from Chinese",
    "English terms with homophones",
    "English undefined derivations",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages with 5 entries",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Terms with Cantonese translations",
    "Terms with Hakka translations",
    "Terms with Hungarian translations",
    "Terms with Indonesian translations",
    "Terms with Mandarin translations",
    "Terms with Vietnamese translations",
    "Terms with Zhuang translations"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "zh",
        "3": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "Chinese",
      "name": "uder"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "cmn",
        "3": "劉"
      },
      "expansion": "Mandarin 劉 /刘 (liú)",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "Lau",
        "3": "Luu"
      },
      "expansion": "Doublet of Lau and Luu",
      "name": "doublet"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "yue",
        "3": "廖"
      },
      "expansion": "Cantonese 廖 (liu⁶)",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "Liao"
      },
      "expansion": "Doublet of Liao",
      "name": "doublet"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From several Chinese surnames, including:\n* From Mandarin 劉 /刘 (liú). Doublet of Lau and Luu.\n* From Cantonese 廖 (liu⁶). Doublet of Liao.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "Lius",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "s"
      },
      "expansion": "Liu (plural Lius)",
      "name": "en-proper noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "name",
  "related": [
    {
      "english": "not to be confused; sounds different",
      "translation": "not to be confused; sounds different",
      "word": "Lü"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English surnames",
        "English surnames from Chinese",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              85,
              88
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2020 April 7, Peter Conrad, “Abolish Silicon Valley by Wendy Liu review – rebooting our reality”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 14 Jun 2025:",
          "text": "We now have good reason to question the pursuits of the vaunted innovators with whom Liu consorted in California – the blissed-out cultists at Google, whose only worry is over “the wrong kind of sparkling water in the microkitchens”, or the manic experts who specialise in “envisioning hyperplanes in n-dimensional space”.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A surname from Chinese."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "surname",
          "surname"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English surnames",
        "English surnames from Chinese",
        "English surnames from Mandarin",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A surname from Chinese.",
        "A surname from Mandarin."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "surname",
          "surname"
        ],
        [
          "surname",
          "surname"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English surnames",
        "English surnames from Cantonese",
        "English surnames from Chinese",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A surname from Chinese.",
        "A surname from Cantonese."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "surname",
          "surname"
        ],
        [
          "surname",
          "surname"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/liˈoʊ/",
      "note": "like Mandarin;from Mandarin 劉",
      "tags": [
        "surname"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/liˈu/",
      "note": "like Taishanese, Hakka, Northern Min, Hokkien, etc;from Mandarin 劉",
      "tags": [
        "surname"
      ]
    },
    {
      "note": "from Mandarin 劉",
      "other": "/ˈlu/",
      "tags": [
        "surname"
      ]
    },
    {
      "enpr": "lyō",
      "note": "from Mandarin 劉",
      "tags": [
        "surname"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈliu̯/",
      "tags": [
        "Hong-Kong"
      ]
    },
    {
      "homophone": "lew"
    },
    {
      "homophone": "lieu"
    },
    {
      "homophone": "lue (without yod-dropping)"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "yue",
      "lang": "Chinese Cantonese",
      "lang_code": "yue",
      "roman": "lau⁴",
      "sense": "surname 劉/刘",
      "word": "劉 /刘"
    },
    {
      "code": "hak",
      "lang": "Hakka Chinese",
      "lang_code": "hak",
      "sense": "surname 劉/刘",
      "word": "劉 /刘"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "lang_code": "cmn",
      "roman": "Liú",
      "sense": "surname 劉/刘",
      "word": "劉 /刘"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "lang_code": "hu",
      "sense": "surname 劉/刘",
      "word": "Liu"
    },
    {
      "code": "id",
      "lang": "Indonesian",
      "lang_code": "id",
      "sense": "surname 劉/刘",
      "word": "Liu"
    },
    {
      "code": "vi",
      "lang": "Vietnamese",
      "lang_code": "vi",
      "sense": "surname 劉/刘",
      "word": "Lưu"
    },
    {
      "code": "vi",
      "lang": "Vietnamese",
      "lang_code": "vi",
      "sense": "surname 劉/刘",
      "word": "劉"
    },
    {
      "code": "za",
      "lang": "Zhuang",
      "lang_code": "za",
      "sense": "surname 劉/刘",
      "word": "Liuz"
    }
  ],
  "word": "Liu"
}

Download raw JSONL data for Liu meaning in English (4.2kB)

{
  "called_from": "page/1498/20230118",
  "msg": "''A surname from Chinese.'[...]' gloss has examples we want to keep, but there are subglosses.",
  "path": [
    "Liu"
  ],
  "section": "English",
  "subsection": "proper noun",
  "title": "Liu",
  "trace": ""
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (ccec6f1 and 4deed51). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.