A Thai menu can look like a wall of unfamiliar words. The good news is that you only need a few dozen of them, and once you know the pattern you can work out almost any dish on the page.
This glossary decodes the words you will see, grouped by cooking method, ingredient and flavour, so you can order with confidence at Mangosteen or any Thai restaurant.
How Thai dish names work
Most Thai dish names are descriptive and follow one pattern: cooking method, then main ingredient, sometimes followed by a flavour or style. Pad gai means stir-fried chicken. Tom yum goong means hot-and-sour soup with prawns.
Spelling varies from menu to menu because Thai has its own script, so you will see gaeng and kaeng, or pad and phad. They mean the same thing.
Cooking-method words
Start here, because the first word tells you how a dish is cooked.
| Word | Meaning | What to expect |
| Pad (phad) | Stir-fried | Quick, hot-wok dishes, often with vegetables and a savoury sauce |
| Gaeng (kaeng) | Curry | A curry paste cooked in coconut milk or stock, eaten with rice |
| Tom | Boiled, soup | Clear or creamy broths, often hot and sour |
| Yum | Spicy salad | Dressed with lime, chilli and fish sauce |
| Tod | Deep-fried | Crisp, golden small plates |
| Yang | Grilled | Charred meat or fish, often with a dipping sauce |
| Neung | Steamed | Gentler, lighter cooking |
Curries come in several styles, and our guide to green, red and massaman curry explains how to choose.
Ingredient words
The second word usually names the main ingredient.
| Word | Meaning |
| Gai | Chicken |
| Moo | Pork |
| Nua | Beef |
| Goong | Prawn |
| Pla | Fish |
| Ped | Duck |
| Tao hu | Tofu |
| Pak | Vegetables |
| Kai | Egg |
Fish sauce and shrimp paste are common in Thai cooking, so always ask the team about vegan, vegetarian or allergy needs. Our vegan Thai guide and allergen guide explain how to order.
Rice, noodle and flavour words
Rice and noodles
- Khao: Khao suay is plain steamed rice, khao niao is sticky rice and khao pad is fried rice.
- Kuay teow: rice noodles. Sen lek are thin and sen yai are wide.
- Woon sen: glass noodles, made from mung bean starch.
- Ba mee: egg noodles.
The best-known noodle dish has its own story, which you can read in what pad thai really is.
Flavour and heat
- Phet: Mai phet means not spicy, and phet nit noi means a little spicy.
- Wan:
- Priao:
- Khem:
Thai cooking aims to balance these four tastes, and our post on how our chefs balance flavours shows how.