CANTONESE ↔ ENGLISH · CC-CANTO

眉精眼企

Cantonese · source Jyutpingmei4 zeng1 ngaan5 kei5

(adjective) to describe one's external appearance which gives off the impression (can be used in a sarcastic sense) of being smart
shrewd
astute
crafty
sly

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.

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Reading & tones

mei44 · low fallingzeng11 · high levelngaan55 · low risingkei55 · low rising

Schematic citation-tone diagrams from the source numbers. These are not recordings or predictions of connected speech.

Reading difference from Unihan

精 has the reading zeng1 here; Unihan’s citation reading is zing1. Different syllable across these source readings. CC-Canto also lists 精 zeng1 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

meimei1—mei2—mei3—微mei4tiny 美mei5beautiful 味mei6taste

zengzeng1—井zeng2a wellzeng3—zeng4—zeng5—郑zeng6Zheng state during the Warring States period

ngaanngaan1—ngaan2—ngaan3—颜ngaan4color 眼ngaan5eye 雁ngaan6wild goose

kei崎kei1mountainous 婍kei2冀kei3another name for Hebei province 奇kei4strange 企kei5to plan a projectkei6—

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.

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Written characters

眉精眼企

Both source spellings are represented. Written membership is not an etymological or semantic claim.

Cantonese characters and the Mandarin bridge ↗

Mandarin comparison · separate source entries

CC-Canto includes this pinyin reference: mei2 jing1 yan3 qi3. It does not establish a Mandarin word with the same meaning.

Look up this spelling in the Mandarin dictionary ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

mei4 zing1 ngaan5 kei5

Cantonese word readings for 眉精眼企. 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.

adj

(Cantonese) smart; quickwitted

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

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