Skip to content

buko

bukô with stress marks

bud; young coconut; found out

noun bu-KO Native origin Common

Also means

In slang, nabuko means to be caught or found out — as in caught doing something wrong.

Usage Note

Buko most commonly refers to young coconut — the green coconut prized for its sweet water and soft, gel-like meat. It also means a plant bud in botanical contexts, and the colloquial verbal form nabuko (busted, caught) is widely used among young speakers.

Examples

Beginner

" Masarap ang buko. "

Natural Translation

The young coconut is delicious.

Literal Translation

Delicious the young-coconut.

Intermediate

" Malamig at masarap ang buko juice sa tag-araw. "

Natural Translation

Young coconut juice is cold and delicious in summer.

Literal Translation

Cold and delicious the young-coconut juice in summer.

Advanced

" Tuwing mainit ang panahon, umaakyat ang aking tito sa puno upang kumuha ng sariwang buko para sa amin. "

Natural Translation

Whenever the weather is hot, my uncle climbs the tree to fetch fresh young coconuts for us.

Literal Translation

Every hot the weather, climbing the my uncle on tree in-order-to get of fresh young-coconut for us.

Free · iOS & Android

Take Tagalog with you

The full course, a 12,500-word dictionary, and flashcards that make every word stick — free to start on iOS and Android.

Tagalog builds thousands of words from a few hundred roots.

How Tagalog words work

Explore Tagalog by topic

Free guides on grammar, vocabulary, and culture to take you past single-word lookups.