Yes, it's an interjection and mostly used as a farewell by Spanish and French speakers, as well as Italians.
Chao is a Spanish word meaning goodbye. Ciao is Italian meaning hello or goodbye, pronounced as chao.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the greeting (spelled 'chau' and only meaning 'bye') spread to the Americas—especially Colombia, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Brazil (as 'tchau'), Venezuela, Panama and Argentina—largely by way of Italian immigrants.
Ciao is an Italian word often used in French too. The Italians use it to mean either "hi" or "bye", but in French it generally means "bye".
One of the most well known Italian greetings throughout the world is the informal greeting known as "Ciao." It is known for being used as either "hello" or "goodbye" between family members, friends, and those amongst the same peer group.
The meaning of ciao in Spanish is "adios" or "hasta luego" (also meaning "see you later"). Because of the italian influence in the Spanish culture, you may find some Spanish say "ciao" when sending goodbyes to someone.
More importantly, should you be saying it in Italy? For an Italian word, ciao seems to belong to no one and to everyone all at once. It's been adopted by as many as (or at least) 38 languages, and its influence extends well beyond Europe to Japan and Somalia.
German, along with many other languages, borrowed the Italian ciao as a way to say goodbye. You can use this word in informal and semi-formal situations.
Ciao Bella is Italian for "hello beautiful". It is a common greeting used by many Italians to greet women, particularly those younger than them. Italians tend to kiss on both sides of the cheek and also gesture when embracing people.
From Italian ciao (“hello, goodbye”), from Venetian ciao (“hello, goodbye; your (humble) servant”), from Venetian s-ciao (“servant, slave”) or s-ciavo (“servant, slave”), from Medieval Latin sclavus (“Slav, slave”), related also to Italian schiavo, English Slav, slave and old Venetian S-ciavón ("Slav"), from Latin ...
If you are on the phone with a friend and you are about to hang up the most common expression you can use is “chao”, but if it's a more formal conversation, you better use “hasta luego”. Explanation: Chao is extremely informal and you want to use it only with close friends.
In Vienna, friends usually greet each other by saying “Servus”, “Ciao”, “Grüß dich” or the German “Hallo”. In order to say goodbye, you can say “Servus” and “Ciao” as well as “Tschüss, Baba” (pronounced like Papa) and the regularly-used dialectic expression “Pfiat di”.
Usage notes. Tschüss was originally common only in northern and central Germany, but it has gained wider acceptance and is now also commonly used in southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and South Tyrol.
Tschüss is the most popular informal goodbye in German.
It's short, sweet, and casual and you'll usually hear it used among friends and family. Contrary to popular belief, Germans really like cute words, so they'll also say Tschüss Tschüss, which means “bye bye” or Tschüssi, which is literally a “little goodbye”.
Double cheek kissing
In Spain, people greet each other and say goodbye with a kiss on each cheek. Don't be mistaken - these aren't wet, sloppy kisses! In fact, these aren't really proper kisses at all. People usually touch their right cheeks together and make a kissing sound, then repeat the process on the left side.
This phrase means “how are you?” and can be used not only to find out how somebody is feeling, but can also be used as a way to say hello. If in passing someone says “hola!” to you, it would acceptable to reply: “como estas?”
When someone asks you ¿Cómo estás? If you feel alright, you say estoy bien; you could also say, estoy muy bien, to give more emphasis, which means “very good” or “very well.” You can also add one extra word, gracias, meaning “thanks”, and estoy bien, gracias; it means “I'm fine, thank you.” 2.
Chao — bye. ¡Hasta pronto! — see you soon. Hasta mañana — see you tomorrow.
Ciao is Italian for Hello or Goodbye. The expression Ciao for Now means Hello or Goodbye for Now.
¡Chau! "¡Chau!" is an interjection which is often translated as "Bye!", and "ciao" is a phrase which is often translated as "bye". Learn more about the difference between "¡Chau!" and "ciao" below. ¡Chau!
Word borrowing from the Italian language was inevitable, and the accent and intonation from certain Italian dialects were also incorporated into Argentinian Spanish. For one such example, Argentinians regularly use the word “chau” to say “bye”, deriving from the Italian “ciao”.
Ciao is Italian both for "hi" and "bye" (and today it can be considered an English word too). Adios is Spanish for "bye", or "goodbye" (and today it can be considered an English word too).