Wok
/wɒk/noun
A deep, round-bottomed cooking pan used especially in Chinese cuisine.
Did you know?English adopted wok from Cantonese 鑊, while the related Mandarin form huò preserves the older Chinese word for a large metal cooking vessel.
Etymological Timeline
Classical Chinese
Chinese
鑊
“A large metal cooking vessel or cauldron”
Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese
ɦwæk
“A cauldron or large cooking pot; reconstructed pronunciation”
Modern Cantonese
Cantonese
wok6
“A deep, rounded cooking pan”
19th Century
English
wok
“A Chinese frying pan or cooking vessel, borrowed from Cantonese”
Modern English
English
wok
“A deep pan used for stir-frying and other high-heat cooking”