CANTONESE ↔ ENGLISH · CC-CANTO

吾

Cantonese · source Jyutpingng4#

(pronoun) Oneself

Cantonese · source Jyutpingjyu4#

zouyu, a legendary creature in old Chinese literature

Cantonese · source Jyutpingng4#

I
my (old)
a surname

Cantonese · source Jyutpingngaa4#

part of an ancient name of a place

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

ng44 · low falling

jyu44 · low falling

ngaa44 · low falling

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

Same syllable, six tones

ngng1—ng2—ng3—吾ng4I 五ng5five 误ng6mistake

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

吾

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:

吾 Wú CC-CEDICT · Mandarinsurname Wu
吾 wú CC-CEDICT · Mandarin(old) I; my

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: wu2. It does not establish a Mandarin word with the same meaning.

Look up this spelling in the Mandarin dictionary ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 9 senses · 3 Cantonese readings

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

jyu4 · ng4 · ngaa4

Cantonese word readings for 吾. 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.

character · Etymology 1

(literary or dialectal) I
(literary or Hakka) my
a surname, Wu

character · Etymology 2

Used for onomatopoeia.
Used in transcription.
(obsolete) a kind of baton

character · Etymology 3

only used in 允吾 (Yányá; Qiānyá) A county established during the Western Han, disestablished during the Northern Wei, and briefly reestablished during the Sui dynasty

character · Etymology 4

used in 吾吾
used in 吾丘

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

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