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玩意

Mandarin · pinyin wán yì

toy
plaything
thing
act
trick (in a performance, stage show, acrobatics etc)

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Characters in this entry

玩: wán · play with, joke, enjoy
意: yì · thought, idea, opinion; think

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

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Mandarin tones

2–4 · wan2 yi4

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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 · 5 senses · 2 Cantonese readings

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

waan4 ji3 · wun6 ji3

Cantonese word readings for 玩意. 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.

noun

(informal) thingamajig; thingie
(informal) device; contrivance
(informal) person; individual (usually used in pejorative senses such as a bad person)
(informal) toy; plaything
(informal) trick; act

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

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