čaj

Ultimately from Chinese 茶 (chá). Cognates include Russian чай (čaj).

• IPA^(key): [ˈt͡ʃaj]

čaj m inan

1. tea (the dried leaves or buds of the tea plant, Camellia sinensis)

   Kup sáčkový čaj. ― Buy a tea bag.

2. tea (the drink made by infusing these dried leaves or buds in hot water)

   Pila čaj. ― She drank tea.

3. tea (a variety of the tea plant)

   zelený čaj ― green tea

4. tea (by extension, any drink made by infusing parts of various other plants)

   bylinkový čaj ― herbal tea

   mátový čaj ― peppermint tea

   heřmánkový čaj ― chamomile tea

• “čaj”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “čaj”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “čaj”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2025

Borrowed from Upper Sorbian čaj, from Turkish çay, from Chinese 茶 (chá).

• IPA^(key): /t͡ʃaj/

čaj m inan

1. (literary) tea

• Starosta, Manfred (1999) “čaj”, in Dolnoserbsko-nimski słownik / Niedersorbisch-deutsches Wörterbuch (in German), Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag
• Lower Sorbian vocabulary. In: Haspelmath, M. & Tadmor, U. (eds.) World Loanword Database. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish چای (çay).

• IPA^(key): /t͡ʃâj/

čȁj m inan (Cyrillic spelling ча̏ј)

1. tea

• zeleni čaj

• “čaj”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2025

Ultimately from Sinitic 茶.

• IPA^(key): [t͡ʃaj]

čaj m inan (relational adjective čajový, diminutive čajík or čajíček)

1. tea

• “čaj”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2003–2025

Borrowed from Serbo-Croatian čȁj, replacing tẹ́ (which is now dialectal).

• IPA^(key): /t͡ʃáːj/

čȃj m inan

1. tea

• “čaj”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU, portal Fran
• “čaj”, in Termania, Amebis
• See also the general references

čaj f

1. female child, daughter, girl (only gypsies and gentlewomen)

• “čaj” in Welsh Romani-English Dictionary, ROMLEX – the Romani Lexicon Project, 2000.