DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

賊

简贼 · 繁賊

Mandarin · pinyin zéi

thief; robber
(bound form) traitor; subversive
(bound form) evil; wicked
sly; shifty; devious
(literary) to harm; to injure
(coll.) extremely; insanely; damn (common in NE China and Taiwan)

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賊: Look up this written character
贼: zéi · thief, traitor; kill

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

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Mandarin tones

2 · zei2

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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.

賊 · find source passages ↗ · 贼 · find source passages ↗

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

caak6

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

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

character · Etymology 1

(obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) to damage; to corrupt; to ruin; to destroy
(obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) to harm; to injure
(obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) to slander
(obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) to murder
(obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) murderer
(obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) harm; disaster
thief; bandit; robber (Classifier: 個／个 m c)
villain; traitor
(obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) to steal
evil; wicked; treacherous
(obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) to restrain
(obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) ruthless; vicious
(colloquial, dialectal) cunning; wily; sly
(obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) a kind of pest that eats the joints of a seedling

character · Etymology 2

(formerly dialectal, including Northeastern Mandarin, increasingly informal) very; particularly; immensely; extremely

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

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