CANTONESE ↔ ENGLISH · CC-CANTO

臣

Cantonese · source Jyutpingsan4

state official or subject in dynastic China
"Your Servant", form of address used when speaking to a ruler
to submit oneself to the rule of or acknowledge allegiance to
to serve a ruler as his subject
Kangxi radical 168
a public servant
subject or servant owing allegiance to the ruler
to subjugate or be subjugated
to regard as subject
minister
statesman
official
a modest and polite term of address for 'I'

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.

Full entryShow on map

Reading & tones

san44 · low falling

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

Same syllable, six tones

san新san1newsan2—san3—神san4deity 肾san5dim-witted 慎san6careful

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.

Explore words with this reading ↗

Written characters

臣

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-CEDICT, the Mandarin–English dictionary, lists the same written form:

臣 Chén CC-CEDICT · Mandarinsurname Chen
臣 chén CC-CEDICT · Mandarinstate official or subject in dynastic China; I, your servant (used in addressing the sovereign); Kangxi radical 131

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: chen2. It does not establish a Mandarin word with the same meaning.

Look up this spelling in the Mandarin dictionary ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 7 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

san4

Cantonese word readings for 臣. 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

(obsolete) slave; servant; captive
minister; statesman; official (in feudal society)
(more broadly) subjects of a monarch
to make a subject
(humble, historical or archaic) I, me; your servant (humble pronoun, especially when speaking to a monarch)
a surname
(chiefly Cantonese) a respelling of the English patronymic son

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

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