甚

Mandarin · pinyin shén#

Meanings · shén

  1. variant of 什 shén
Mandarin · pinyin shèn#

Meanings · shèn

  1. excessive; undue
  2. to exceed; to be more than
  3. very; extremely
  4. (dialect) what; whatever (Taiwan pr. shén)
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Characters in this entry

甚
shèn · great extent; considerably
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

2 · shen2

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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

sam6 · sap6

Cantonese word readings for 甚. 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

  1. serious; extreme; excessive
  2. extremely; considerably; very
  3. (literary) to exceed; to surpass
  4. a surname

character · Etymology 2

  1. (literary or dialectal Mandarin, Jin) what

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

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

甚 · shen2 · shen4
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source lines 74,290, 74,291
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source records甚 甚 [shen2] /variant of 什[shen2]/甚 甚 [shen4] /excessive; undue/to exceed; to be more than/very; extremely/(dialect) what; whatever (Taiwan pr. [shen2])/