toyota

/tɔɪˈəʊtə/

Etymology

Borrowed from Japanese トヨタ (Toyota), from the name of the Toyoda family. The spelling was changed to Toyota because of a belief that it sounded better, or because トヨタ takes eight strokes to write, and 8 is considered lucky.

name

  1. A surname from Japanese.
  2. A city in Aichi, Japan. A city near Nagoya, where the eponymous manufacturer has its headquarters.
  3. The Toyota Motor Corporation, a Japanese manufacturer of cars.“So vehicles, like some Toyota Corollas, have a 160-mph speedometer despite coming nowhere close to reaching such speeds.”
  4. A brand of car manufactured by Toyota.“It is the prelapsarian Polynesia of free love, noble savagery, Kon Tiki rafting and Easter Island statuary, not the Levi’s-wearing, Toyota-driving, pédalo-pushing, efflorescent-cocktails-in-a-split-coconut-serving pseudo-paradise that awaits latter-day travellers.”

noun

  1. A car of the brand Toyota