In 2007, the word “pho” was added to which Oxford dictionary?

In 2007, the word “pho” was added to the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. The entry marked the dish’s transition from a specifically Vietnamese culinary term into an established English-language food word.

Pho had reached English-speaking audiences decades earlier through Vietnamese migration after the Vietnam War. Refugees opened restaurants in countries including the United States, Canada, Australia, and France, while regional restaurant communities helped introduce the soup to diners unfamiliar with Vietnamese cuisine. In the United States, pho began entering the mainstream during the 1990s.

The dictionary title matters because the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary is a historical abridgment of the Oxford English Dictionary, not one of Oxford’s subject-specific reference works. The word refers to the Vietnamese soup of broth, rice noodles, herbs, and usually beef or chicken. Its spelling is commonly written “pho” in English, while Vietnamese uses “phở,” with a diacritic.