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卡哇伊

Mandarin · pinyin kǎ wā yī

cute
adorable
charming (loanword from Japanese)

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Characters in this entry

卡: kǎ · card, punch card; calorie
哇: wa · vomit; cry of an infant
伊: yī · third person pronoun; he, she, this, that

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

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Mandarin tones

3–1–1 · ka3 wa1 yi1

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3character links1same-tone record

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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.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 2 Cantonese readings

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

kaa1 waa1 ji1 · kaa6 waa1 ji1

Cantonese word readings for 卡哇伊. 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.

adj

(slang) kawaii; cute

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

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