泡
Meanings · paau1
- (bursted) bubble
- illusory
- visionary hope
- bubble-shaped thing, such as light bulb
- mumps
- a burst
- spray
- stream, a quantifier
Meanings · paau3
- to soak
- to steep
- to infuse
- to brew
- to pickle
- to pick up (a girl)
- to get off with (a sexual partner)
Meanings · paau4
- grand
Meanings · pok1
- blister (i.e. skin bubble)
- something soft and puffy such as tofu puff
Meanings · pou4
- to dawdle
- to shilly-shally
- to hang about
Meanings · pou5
- bubble
- foam
- lather
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.
Reading & tones
Schematic citation-tone diagrams from the source numbers. These are not recordings or predictions of connected speech.
Reading difference from Unihan
- 泡 has the reading paau1 here; Unihan’s citation reading is pou5. Different syllable across these source readings. CC-Canto also lists 泡 paau1 as its own entry.
Computed by zimai: each syllable of the CC-Canto word reading is compared with Unihan 17.0.0 kCantonese for its character. The comparison does not say why a reading differs (a changed tone, 變音, a reading tied to one meaning, or a source variant).
Same syllable, six tones
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.
Written characters
Both source spellings are represented. Written membership is not an etymological or semantic claim.
Mandarin comparison · separate source entries
CC-CEDICT, the Mandarin–English dictionary, lists the same written form:
- 泡 pāo CC-CEDICT · Mandarinpuffed; swollen; spongy; small lake (esp. in place names); classifier for urine or feces
- 泡 pào CC-CEDICT · Mandarinbubble; foam; blister; to soak; to steep; to infuse; to dawdle; to loiter; to pick up (a girl); to get off with (a sexual partner); classifier for occurrences of an action; classifier for number of infusions
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: pao4. It does not establish a Mandarin word with the same meaning.
Look up this spelling in the Mandarin dictionary ↗Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 17 senses · 4 Cantonese readings
Rime Cantonese 粵拼
paau1 · paau3 · paau4 · pou5
Cantonese word readings for 泡. 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
- puffy, spongy, soft
- puffy, spongy or soft object
- bladder
- small lake
- Classifier for excreta.
- Rubus sp.
- Name of a river.
character
- bubble
- bubblelike or bulbous object
- blister
- (Cantonese) courage; guts
- (Taiwanese Hokkien) saliva; spit
character
- to soak; to sit in water (or liquid)
- to pour boiling water; to infuse; to brew (such as tea, instant soup, etc.)
- (informal) to pick up; to meet and seduce for romantic purposes
character
- (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) abundant
character
- (Southern Min) light and crisp
Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack