白
Meanings
- white
- snowy
- pure
- bright
- empty
- blank
- plain
- clear
- to make clear
- in vain
- gratuitous
- free of charge
- reactionary
- anti-communist
- funeral
- to stare coldly
- to write wrong character
- to state
- to explain
- vernacular
- spoken lines in opera
- unblemished
- a surname
- the spoken dialogue in a stage show
- to have a strong drink to celebrate
- to clear up
- to confess to
- to turn white
- for no reason
- simply
- just
- easy to understand
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.
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:
- 白 Bái CC-CEDICT · Mandarinsurname Bai; Bai ethnic group
- 白 bái CC-CEDICT · Mandarinwhite; in vain; free of charge; (bound form) (of facts, the truth, a situation) clear; evident (e.g. 真相大白 zhēn xiàng dà bái); (bound form) plain; without additions (e.g. 白飯 bái fàn); (bound form) to explain; to state (e.g. 辯白 biàn bái); (bound form) to give a disdainful look (e.g. 白了他一眼 bái le tā yī yǎn); (bound form) vernacular (e.g. 白話 bái huà); …
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: bai2. It does not establish a Mandarin word with the same meaning.
Look up this spelling in the Mandarin dictionary ↗Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 23 senses · 1 Cantonese reading
Rime Cantonese 粵拼
baak6
Cantonese word readings for 白. 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
- white
- clear; easy to understand
- clear; pure; plain; blank
- bright; well-lit
- eminent; prominent
- vernacular
- dialect
- (abbreviation, alt-of) short for 白讀／白读 (báidú, “colloquial reading”)
- reactionary; anticommunist
- in vain; for nothing
- free of charge; gratuitous; gratis
- to stare coldly; to stare at someone with the white of the eyes
- to explain; to present; to state
- to mispronounce or wrongly write a character
- spoken lines
- funeral
- (Hokkien) bland and tasteless
- (Hokkien) cooked with just water without adding any seasoning
- (Hokkien) greasy; with a lot of fat or oil
- (Hokkien) jargon; cant
- (Mainland China Hokkien) frank speech
- a surname, commonly romanized as Bai
- (～族) Bai, an ethnic group living primarily in Yunnan, China
Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack