DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

先生

Mandarin · pinyin xiān sheng

Characters in this entry

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

1–5 · xian1 sheng5

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

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Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 13 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

sin1 saang1

Cantonese word readings for 先生. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

sin1 saang1

Pleco · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Word reading; meanings not aligned.

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

mister; sir; gentleman
husband
An honorific for a person of virtue, learning, or ability (usually conferred on males).
(honorific in Mandarin, Jin; common in Cantonese, Gan, Hakka, Min) teacher
(dated) Usually placed after a profession of fortune-telling, storytelling, face reading, feng shui, or something similar.
(dated) bookkeeper
(Gan, Hakka, Min, dated in Mandarin and Jin) doctor
(Gan, Hakka, Min, dated in Mandarin and Jin) doctor — (dialectal) traditional Chinese medicine physician
(literary) scholar; intellectual; man of letters
(literary) Taoist priest
(literary) senior family member, especially one's father or elder brother
(obsolete or Wu) female prostitute
(literal, Classical) one who was born earlier