空心菜

Mandarin · pinyin kōng xīn cài

Meanings

  1. water spinach; kangkung
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Characters in this entry

空
kōng · empty, hollow, bare, deserted
心
xīn · heart; mind, intelligence; soul; 5th lunar mansion, determinative star α Scorpii (Antares)
菜
cài · vegetables; dish, order; food
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

1–1–4 · kong1 xin1 cai4

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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 · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

hung1 sam1 coi3

Cantonese word readings for 空心菜. 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

  1. (colloquial) water spinach (Ipomoea aquatica)

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

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