CANTONESE ↔ ENGLISH · CC-CANTO

三緘其口

简三缄其口 · 繁三緘其口

Cantonese · source Jyutpingsaam1 gaam1 kei4 hau2

to talk cautiously

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

saam11 · high levelgaam11 · high levelkei44 · low fallinghau22 · high rising

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

Same syllable, six tones

saam三saam1threesaam2—saam3—saam4—saam5—saam6—

gaam监gaam1hard 减gaam2鉴gaam3gaam4—gaam5—gaam6—

kei崎kei1mountainous 婍kei2冀kei3another name for Hebei province 奇kei4strange 企kei5to plan a projectkei6—

hau齁hau1口hau2mouth 吼hau3roar or howl of an animal 喉hau4throat 厚hau5thick 后hau6back

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

三緘其口缄

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:

三緘其口 sān jiān qí kǒu CC-CEDICT · Mandarin(idiom) reluctant to speak about it; tight-lipped

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: san1 jian1 qi2 kou3. It does not establish a Mandarin word with the same meaning.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

saam1 gaam1 kei4 hau2

Cantonese word readings for 三緘其口. 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.

phrase

(idiomatic) keeping one's mouth shut more than once; be extremely selective in one's words

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

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