DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

相公

Mandarin · pinyin xiàng gong

lord
master
young gentleman
male prostitute
catamite
mahjong player disqualified by unintentionally taking in the wrong number of dominoes
(old form of address for one's husband) husband

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

相: xiāng · mutual, reciprocal, each other
公: gōng · fair, equitable; public; duke

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

4–5 · xiang4 gong5

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

2character links

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

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

Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

相公 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 4 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

soeng3 gung1

Cantonese word readings for 相公. 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.

noun

(archaic, honorific) term of address used by a wife to her husband in feudal China
(archaic, honorific) term of address for young men of rich or cultured families in feudal China
(regional) male prostitute
(mahjong) a hand having more or less tiles than the required number

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

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