DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

寄生

Mandarin · pinyin jì shēng

to live in or on another organism as a parasite
to live by taking advantage of others
parasitism
parasitic

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

寄: jì · send, transmit, mail; rely on
生: shēng · life, living, lifetime; birth

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

4–1 · ji4 sheng1

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

2character links2same-tone records

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

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.

寄生 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Rime · Wiktionary

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

gei3 sang1

Cantonese word readings for 寄生. 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.

verb

to live as a parasite; to be parasitic; to parasitize
(figurative) to live off others; to live by taking advantage of others

noun

(ecology) parasitism
(Putian Puxian Min, Taiwanese Hokkien) hermit crab

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

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