Hong Kong

Alternative forms

• HK (initialism)
• Hong-Kong, Hong-kong, Honkong (obsolete)
• Hongkong (dated)

Etymology

From Cantonese 香港 (hoeng¹ gong², “fragrant harbor”),^[1] the former name of a settlement in what is now Aberdeen on the southwest side of Hong Kong Island, where incense was stored for export.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌhɒŋˈkɒŋ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌhɔŋˈkɔŋ/
  • (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˌhɑŋˈkɑŋ/
• (Hong Kong) IPA^(key): [hɔŋ˥ kʰɔŋ˥]
• Rhymes: -ɒŋ
• enPR: hǒngʹ kǒngʹ

• Audio (Canada):

  (file)

Proper noun

Hong Kong

1. A city in southeastern China, located on an island east of the Pearl River delta in the South China Sea; formerly owned by the United Kingdom.
   • 1850 December, “Foreign News”, in The Gentleman's Magazine‎, volume XXXIV, London: John Bowyer Nichols and Son, page 645:

     CHINA.
     A rebellion of more than ordinary importance is in progress in this country. At the departure of the last mail from Hong Kong numerous bands of robbers were plundering and burning throughout the provinces of Kangsi and Canton, and, having captured the city of Kintschan, had advanced to within 120 English miles of Canton.

   • 1964, John F. Kennedy, A Nation of Immigrants‎, Revised and Enlarged edition, Harper & Row, →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 78–79:

     In 1962 a special law had to be passed to permit the immigration of several thousand Chinese refugees who had escaped from Communist China to Hong Kong.

   • 2005, Bill Clinton, My Life‎, volume II, New York: Vintage Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 437:

     The Chinese had promised to let Hong Kong keep its much more democratic political system, but I had the clear impression that the details of their reunion were still being worked out, and that neither side was fully satisfied with the present state of affairs.

   • 2022 May 11, “Reports: Hong Kong arrests Roman Catholic cardinal, 3 others”, in AP News‎, archived from the original on 12 May 2022:

     A 90-year-old Roman Catholic cardinal, a singer and at least two others have been arrested in Hong Kong on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces to endanger China’s national security, in an action widely condemned as a further sign of Beijing’s erosion of rights in the city.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Hong Kong.
2. An island in southeastern China, Hong Kong Island, the site of the city of the same name, lying off Guangdong (Canton) province.
   • 2016, Carolyn Phillips, “The Coastal Southeast”, in All Under Heaven: Recipes from the 35 Cuisines of China‎, Ten Speed Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 189:

     Sampans and punts crowded the tight harbors of places like Shau Kei Wan on Hong Kong Island, and these fisherfolk cooked up the day’s catch for their customers on the most minimal of stoves.

   • 2019 April 17, Marcelle Sussman Fischler, “House Hunting in … Hong Kong”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2019-04-17, Real Estate‎:

     This two-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom apartment is in the western section of Mid-Levels, an affluent residential area built into the northern slope of Victoria Peak on Hong Kong Island, in Hong Kong.

3. A special administrative region of China, which includes the city and island of the same name as well as nearby islands and the Kowloon Peninsula.
4. (historical) A colony in 1843–1941 and 1945–1981 and then British Dependent Territory in 1981–1997 of the United Kingdom, which previously administered the area of the present-day Chinese special administrative region.

See also

References

Proper noun

Hong Kong

1. Alternative spelling of Hongkong, a city, island, and special administrative region in southeastern China

Pronunciation

• ^{(aspirated h)}IPA^(key): /ɔ̃ɡ.kɔ̃ɡ/, /ɔŋ.kɔŋ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

Proper noun

Hong Kong f

1. Hong Kong (a city, island, and special administrative region in southeastern China)

Alternative forms

• Hongkong (dated)
• Honguecongue

Etymology

From Cantonese 香港 (hoeng¹ gong², “fragrant harbour”).

Pronunciation

Proper noun

Hong Kong f

1. Hong Kong (a city, island, and special administrative region in southeastern China)

Proper noun

Hong Kong n

1. Hong Kong

Alternative forms

• Hongkong

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /xônɡ kônɡ/

Proper noun

Hȍng Kȍng m (Cyrillic spelling Хо̏нг Ко̏нг)

1. Hong Kong (a city, island, and special administrative region in southeastern China)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /xonˈkon/ [xõŋˈkõn]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -on

Proper noun

Hong Kong ?

1. Hong Kong (a city, island, and special administrative region in southeastern China)

Further reading

• “Hong Kong” in Diccionario panhispánico de dudas, segunda edición, Real Academia Española, 2023. →ISBN

Alternative forms

• Hongkong

Etymology

Borrowed from English Hong Kong, from Cantonese 香港 (hoeng¹ gong², “Fragrant Harbor”).

Pronunciation

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ˌhoŋ ˈkoŋ/ [ˌhoŋ ˈkoŋ]
• Rhymes: -oŋ
• Syllabification: Hong Kong

Proper noun

Hong Kong (Baybayin spelling ᜑᜓᜅ᜔ ᜃᜓᜅ᜔)

1. Hong Kong (a city, island, and special administrative region in southern China)