DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT
魏
Mandarin · pinyin wèi#
Meanings · wèi
- tower over a palace gateway (old)
Mandarin · pinyin Wèi#
Meanings · Wèi
- surname Wei
- name of a vassal state of the Zhou dynasty from 661 BC in Shanxi, one of the Seven Hero Warring States
- Wei state, founded by Cao Cao 曹操 Cáo Cāo, one of the Three Kingdoms after the Han dynasty
- the Wei dynasty 221–265
- Wei Prefecture or Wei County at various times in history
Characters in this entry
- 魏
- wèi · kingdom of Wei; surname
Explore the spelling
Mandarin tones
4 · wei4
Compare attested words with these syllables ↗Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.
Connected dictionary
1character link56same-tone records
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.
Compare dictionary sources Rime · Wiktionary
Rime Cantonese 粵拼
ngai4 · ngai6
Cantonese word readings for 魏. 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
- (obsolete) palace watchtower
- (historical) (～國) State of Wei during the Warring States period
- (historical) (～國) Cao Wei, one of the three major states in the Three Kingdoms period
- (historical) (～朝) any of the dynasties of Northern Wei, Eastern Wei or Western Wei
- a surname
character
- (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) standing alone
- (alt-of, alternative) alternative form of 巍 (wéi, “towering”)
Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack