啉

Cantonese · source Jyutpinglam1

Meanings

  1. porphyrin (organic chemical essential to hemoglobin and chlorophyll)
  2. stupid
  3. slow
  4. to drink
About these definitions

Source definition segments, in their original order. Characters a definition cites are shown without their Mandarin pinyin; classifier lists that CC-Canto copied from CC-CEDICT are marked Mandarin. The community dictionary is not independently verified by zimai.

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Reading & tones

Schematic citation-tone diagrams from the source numbers. These are not recordings or predictions of connected speech.

Tone difference from Unihan

  • 啉 is read lam1 here; Unihan’s citation reading is lam4. Same syllable, different tone across these source readings. CC-Canto also lists 啉 lam1 as its own entry.

Computed by zimai: each syllable of the CC-Canto word reading is compared with Unihan 17.0.0 kCantonese for its character. The comparison does not say why a reading differs (a changed tone, 變音, a reading tied to one meaning, or a source variant).

Same syllable, six tones

lamlam1—lam2—lam3—林lam4woods廪lam5government granarylam6—

Characters whose customary Unihan reading (kCantonese) is this syllable in each tone, chosen as in the tone atlas (2013 standard level, then the number of CC-CEDICT words they form), with CC-Canto 2017's meaning for that reading; a dash means no catalogue character has that reading. Checked syllables (-p, -t, -k) normally carry tones 1, 3 and 6. Character readings, not word readings; no frequency implied.

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Written characters

Both source spellings are represented. Written membership is not an etymological or semantic claim.

Cantonese characters and the Mandarin bridge ↗

Mandarin comparison · separate source entries

CC-CEDICT, the Mandarin–English dictionary, lists the same written form:

  • 啉 lín CC-CEDICT · Mandarinused in the transliteration of the names of organic compounds such as porphyrin 卟啉 bǔ lín and quinoline 喹啉 kuí lín

A separate source entry, shown for comparison. The same characters can carry different senses in Mandarin and in Cantonese; zimai does not align these senses.

CC-Canto includes this pinyin reference: bu3lin2. It does not establish a Mandarin word with the same meaning.

Look up this spelling in the Mandarin dictionary ↗
Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 7 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

lam4

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

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

character · Etymology 1

  1. (historical dictionaries only) to pour a round of alcoholic drink
  2. (historical dictionaries only) to finish drinking
  3. (Hakka, Southern Min) to drink
  4. (Hokkien) to drink alcohol

character · Etymology 3

  1. (historical dictionaries only) to be clamorous; to be noisy

character · Etymology 4

  1. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) stupid

character · Etymology 5

  1. Used in transcription, especially of chemical names.

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

CC-Canto · Pleco Inc. · edition 2017-02-02
Source line 26,562 · Original publisher · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Edition & transformations

Original source comment: adapted from cc-cedict

Mandarin comparison: CC-CEDICT 2026-10-13, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source reading differences and six-tone sets: computed by zimai from Unihan 17.0.0 (Unicode License V3).

Exact source record & identity啉 啉 [bu3lin2] {lam1} /porphyrin (organic chemical essential to hemoglobin and chlorophyll)/stupid/slow/to drink/ # adapted from cc-cedict

SHA-256: 966789fddb0ff0f292d701d568bd0c80944e89babc5d45fae4f67ba93f38c6ee