: a soup made of beef or chicken broth and rice noodles
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Pho, which first appeared in print in English in 1935, was borrowed from a Vietnamese word which was spelled phở. English speakers replaced the vowel with "o" but preserved the pronunciation as "fuh," rather than "foh." Another Vietnamese food word that was borrowed into English is nuoc mam, which refers to a type of fish sauce that is fermented in brine. In that case as well, the original Vietnamese word had accent marks that were lost on the journey into English. Nuoc mam was recorded in English just a few years before pho arrived.
Examples of pho in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the WebGiven that Tran ran a pho restaurant in Vietnam, noodle soup is nonnegotiable at Chay.—Tom Sietsema, Washington Post, 19 Jan. 2024 Restaurants serving Vietnamese fare like pho and shrimp spring rolls began to pop up.—Amy Qin Callaghan O’Hare, New York Times, 12 Nov. 2023 After an agonizingly long shortage, Sriracha lovers relished the news that the wildly popular Huy Fong Foods rooster bottles were reappearing on grocery store shelves and restaurant tables to once again spice up steaming bowls of pho and ramen.—Jessica Guynn, USA TODAY, 28 Mar. 2024 This attention to detail shows up at Vigilante in the form of dishes like the Pho-Ken Noodle Soup, a fusion of pho and chicken noodle soup, which takes days to prepare.—Detroit Free Press, 6 Mar. 2024 Inspectors found a total of 57 live German cockroaches and 18 dead roaches throughout the pho restaurant on Tuesday, according to the report.—Jacqueline Pinedo, Sacramento Bee, 22 Mar. 2024 Kenny opted to bring his Vietnamese heritage to the forefront, amping up his chicken with pho seasoning.—Rachel Bernhard, Journal Sentinel, 20 Mar. 2024 Dishes include birria pho, sriracha-lime elote, short ribs pho, Vietnamese beef carpaccio and the Peruvian beef dish lomo saltado.—Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 Mar. 2024 The attraction was Tran’s menu, an extensive survey of Vietnamese home-style cooking, including pho, hot pots, papaya salad, spring rolls, steamed rice crepes and dozens of other dishes.—Tim Carman, Washington Post, 23 Feb. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pho.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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