語
A
ñ
字
Second Language
Word file #005RisingEveryday English

What does kowtow mean?

叩头kòutóu

Say itKOW-tow/ˈkaʊ.taʊ/verb (also a noun)

Character by character
  1. 叩kòuknock
  2. 头tóuhead

To be far too respectful and obedient toward someone powerful; also the Chinese bow of kneeling and touching your head to the ground.

Written by the Second Language TeamWritten

To kowtow is to be far too respectful and obedient toward someone with power. Examples are agreeing with everything the boss says, or giving in to a strong country to keep its business. You will see it most in news and politics. In 2019, for example, critics across US politics accused the NBA of “kowtowing” to China after the league apologized over a pro–Hong Kong tweet. The word started as a real bow: in Chinese, it means kneeling and touching your forehead to the ground.

English speakers say KOW-tow, and both halves rhyme with “cow.” The Mandarin word is 叩头 kòutóu (traditional 叩頭). 叩 kòu means “knock,” and 头 tóu means “head.” Kòu has a falling tone and tóu has a rising one, and together they sound closer to “koh-toh” than to “cow-cow.” Chinese also has a twin word for the same bow, 磕头 kētóu (traditional 磕頭). In English, kowtow is informal and disapproving [3]. It is fine in conversation and in the news. When it describes someone today, it is a criticism.

Word stats

Known in English
Most English speakers have read it in the news. Far fewer know it started as a real bow in China.
Said in China today
Chinese speakers still say 叩头 and 磕头, but for the real bow, not for agreeing with everything the boss says.
Polite
Not a rude word, and newspapers print it all the time. But when you say someone kowtows, you are criticizing them.
Freshness
It is over two hundred years old, but more people look it up every year. The news keeps it busy.

Spotted in the wild

Group chat · Tuesday, 6:15 pm
  1. Samdid you see dan in the meeting today
  2. Youhe agreed with every single slide. even the one with the typo
  3. Samthe way he kowtows to the boss is almost impressive

What it means here: Dan is far too eager to please the boss; it is a criticism, said with a smile.

Comments under a news article
  1. Rileyso the studio cut the whole scene just to get the film released in one big market? that’s kowtowing, plain and simple
  2. Jordanor it’s just business. studios edit films for different countries all the time

What it means here: Riley uses kowtowing to mean giving in to a powerful buyer to keep the money; Jordan does not agree it is that bad.

Family chat · New Year’s morning
  1. Momwe’re visiting grandma at 10. she still likes a proper 磕头 from the grandkids
  2. Youwait, a real kowtow? knees and forehead on the floor?
  3. Momyes. it takes five seconds and makes her whole year
  4. Youok. wearing my thick jeans

What it means here: Here kowtow is the real bow; Mom writes 磕头 (kētóu, “knock head”), the other Chinese word for it.

How to use it

  • kowtow to someoneShe refuses to kowtow to anyone, even the CEO.
  • kowtow to pressure / demandsThe company kowtowed to pressure and pulled the ad.
  • all the kowtowingAll that kowtowing didn’t get him the promotion.
  • perform the kowtow (the real bow)Visitors to the court were expected to perform the kowtow before the emperor.

Don’t say it like this

  • Sounds offHe kowtows the boss.

    Say thisHe kowtows to the boss.

    In this meaning, kowtow needs “to” before the person or thing you give in to.

  • Sounds offI kowtowed to my teacher to thank her for a great class.

    Say thisI thanked my teacher warmly for a great class.

    In English, kowtow is not a compliment. It says you were weak or too eager to please.

  • Sounds off“KOW-toh” (like a tow truck)

    Say this“KOW-tow” (both halves rhyme with “cow”)

    The spelling looks like “tow truck,” but the second half sounds like the first.

kowtow or not?

Is each of these kowtow? Pick an answer to find out.

  1. An employee laughs at all of the manager’s bad jokes and never disagrees, hoping for a raise.

  2. You thank a nurse who stayed late to help you.

  3. A small country drops its complaint after a bigger country threatens to stop trading with it.

  4. In a meeting, you politely tell your boss you think the plan has a problem.

The kowtow family

  • 磕头 kētóu“Knock head”: the other Chinese word for the kneeling bow.Same bow, different first character. Chinese dictionaries treat the two as twins.
  • grovelTo act very humble and beg, often to say sorry or ask for something.Kowtow bows to power; grovel begs for forgiveness. Both are hard on the knees.
  • toadyA person who flatters powerful people to get ahead.The toady is the person who kowtows. No actual toads are involved.

Where it came from

  1. 1793Britain sends Lord Macartney to the Qianlong emperor. The two sides argue over whether he will kowtow. They settle on Macartney bowing his head and bending one knee, as he would to his own king. Some Western countries at the time resisted the ritual, because it accepted the Chinese emperor as the “son of heaven” [1].
  2. 1804Kowtow appears in English as a noun. The Oxford English Dictionary’s earliest example is from the writing of John Barrow, and Etymonline and Merriam-Webster also date the noun to 1804 [2][1].
  3. 1816Lord Amherst’s embassy argues over the kowtow, which meant kneeling and knocking the head nine times before the emperor. The emperor sends the mission home without meeting them.
  4. 1826The verb appears, in the writing of Benjamin Disraeli. From the start it means “to act too eager to please,” not the real bow. English uses the verb for the real bow only from 1848 [2].

Kowtow in English vs. 叩头 in Chinese

In English, kowtow is almost always about attitude. In Chinese, 叩头 and 磕头 are still mostly about the body: a real bow.

PointEnglish kowtowChinese 叩头 / 磕头
Main meaningObeying or flattering powerful people too muchKneeling with both hands and the head on the ground
FeelingDisapprovingDeep respect; a ceremony
Other meaningsThe real Chinese bow, in history and culture writingBegging hard, formally becoming someone’s apprentice, or, in older writing, lying down to sleep
Where you meet itNews, politics, complaints about coworkersNew Year bows to elders, ancestors, old customs

Chinese dictionaries give the bow as the main meaning, plus senses like “begging hard.” They do not give the English idea of giving in to power. So if you tell a Chinese speaker that your coworker kowtows to the boss, they may picture him actually on his knees by the printer.

The bow itself is still around. A People’s Daily column says kowtowing disappeared from official life after the 1911 revolution but lived on in folk custom. A 2025 Tencent News article says the New Year kowtow to elders now survives mainly among rural people in parts of Shandong, Henan and Hebei provinces. It adds that people online argue about whether the bow is a tradition to keep or a “bad custom”.

Both Chinese words are old. Wiktionary and Zdic quote 叩头 from additions that Chu Shaosun made to the Shiji, an ancient Chinese history, in the 1st century BCE. The Taiwan Ministry of Education dictionary’s earliest example of 磕头 comes from Yijian zhi, a Song-dynasty book by Hong Mai. The most solemn form of the bow was three kneelings and nine kowtows (三跪九叩 sān guì jiǔ kòu).

Which of the two did English borrow? Merriam-Webster and the American Heritage Dictionary say 叩头 kòutóu [1]. Wiktionary agrees, and adds that the word may have come through Cantonese, where 叩頭 is said kau3 tau4. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary says 磕头 kētóu instead [3]. Etymonline gives only an old spelling, k’o-t’ou, with no characters [2]. Chinese dictionaries treat the two as one word in two forms: Zdic explains 叩头 simply as “磕头”. This page follows most dictionaries and shows 叩头 in its character tiles.

Sources

  1. KOWTOW Definition & MeaningMerriam-Webster
  2. Kowtow - Etymology, Origin & MeaningOnline Etymology Dictionary
  3. kowtow verb - Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notesOxford Learner's Dictionaries

More words to decode

Articles