竊

简 窃 · 繁 竊
Mandarin · pinyin qiè

Meanings

  1. to steal
  2. secretly
  3. (humble) I
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Characters in this entry

竊
Look up this written character
窃
qiè · secretly, stealthily; steal; thief
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4 · qie4

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1character link26same-tone records
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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.

竊 · find source passages ↗ · 窃 · find source passages ↗

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

sit3

Cantonese word readings for 竊. 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. to steal
  2. thief
  3. to acquire illegitimately; to usurp
  4. secretly; stealthily
  5. (literary, humble) personally

character · Etymology 2

  1. (Xiamen and Zhangzhou Hokkien) seventy (used with numbers from 71 to 79)

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

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