kung fu

kung fu

See also: kungfu and kung-fu

English

Alternative forms

• gongfu, gong-fu, gong fu, gungfu, gung-fu, gung fu, kungfu, kung-fu, Kung Fu

Etymology

An atonal and hyphenless Wade–Giles romanization of Mandarin 功夫 (gōngfu, “skill, accomplishment”). Modern Chinese use of 功夫 to mean “martial art(s)” has been reborrowed from European languages, the traditional Chinese term being 武術／武术／武术 (wǔshù).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkʌŋ ˈfuː/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• (Rare) IPA^(key): /ˈkʊŋ ˈfuː/
• (Rare) (emulating Cantonese) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔŋ ˈfuː/

Noun

kung fu (countable and uncountable, plural kung fu)

1. (countable) A Chinese martial art.

   Synonym: wushu

   • 1974, Carl Douglas (lyrics and music), “Kung Fu Fighting”, performed by Carl Douglas:

     Everybody was kung-fu fighting / Those kicks were fast as lightning

2. (martial arts) The Chinese martial arts collectively.

   Synonym: wushu

3. (slang) A mastery of or expertise in a skill
   1. (slang, computing) A mastery of or expertise in computer programming, hacking, or cracking

Derived terms

• -fu, wire fu, kung flu

Translations

martial art

Arabic: كُونْج فُو‎ m (kung fū) Assamese: কুংফু (kuṅphu), কুম্ফু (kumphu) Burmese: (please verify) ကွန်ဖူး (kwanhpu:) Catalan: kung-fu m Chinese: Cantonese: 功夫 (gung1 fu1) Mandarin: 功夫 (zh) (gōngfu) Min Nan: 功夫 (zh-min-nan) (kang-hu) Dutch: kung fu (nl) m or f Esperanto: kungfuo Estonian: kung-fu Finnish: kung-fu French: kung-fu (fr) m German: Kung-Fu (de) n Greek: Κουνγκ-Φου (Koungk-Fou), κουνγκ φου (koungk fou) Hebrew: קוּנְג פוּ‎ (he) (kung fu) Hindi: कुंग फू (kuṅg phū), कुंग फ़ू (kuṅg fū) Indonesian: kungfu (id) Italian: kung fu (it) m Japanese: 功夫 (ja) (kanfū), カンフー (kanfū), ゴンフー (gonfū) Kazakh: кунг-фу (kung-fu) Khmer: កុងហ្វូ (kongfou) Korean: 쿵후 (kunghu) Malay: kung fu Nepali: कुङ फू (kuṅ phū) Oriya: କଙ୍ଗ୍ ଫୁ (kôṅg phu) Persian: کونگ فو‎ (fa) (kung fu) Polish: kung-fu (pl) n Portuguese: kung fu (pt) m Romanian: kung-fu Russian: кун-фу́ (ru) n (kun-fú), кунфу́ (ru) n (kunfú), кунг-фу́ (ru) n (kung-fú), гунфу́ (ru) n (gunfú) Spanish: kung-fu m Swedish: kung fu (sv) c Tagalog: kung fu Thai: กังฟู (th) (gang-fuu) Tibetan: དྲག་རྩལ (drag rtsal) Uyghur: گۇمپا‎ (gumpa) Vietnamese: võ thuật Trung Quốc (武術中國) (literally Chinese wushu), kung fu (vi), công phu (vi) (功夫) Yoruba: kọnfú

Further reading

• kung fu (term) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Chinese martial arts on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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Portuguese

Noun

kung fu m (uncountable)

1. kung fu (Chinese martial art)

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Tagalog

Etymology

Borrowed from English kung fu, from Wade–Giles romanization of Mandarin 功夫 (kung¹-fu⁵, “skill, or accomplishment”).

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: kung‧fu
• IPA^(key): /kuŋ ˈpu/, [kʊm ˈpu]

Noun

kung fú

1. (martial arts) kung fu

Further reading

• “kung fu”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, Manila: Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, 2018