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菜

Mandarin · pinyin cài

vegetable; greens (Classifier: 棵 kē)
dish (of food) (Classifier: 樣 yàng, 道 dào, 盤 pán)
(of one's skills etc) weak; poor
(coll.) (one's) type

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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

4 · cai4

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1character link7same-tone records4source references

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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 · 9 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

coi3

Cantonese word readings for 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.

character

vegetable; greens (Classifier: 棵 m; 根 m; 條／条 c; 樖 c)
vegetable; greens (Classifier: 棵 m; 根 m; 條／条 c; 樖 c) — (specifically, in compounds) brassica crop
dish; course (Classifier: 盤／盘 m; 道 m; 味 m)
cuisine; (type of) food
grocery
(colloquial) (one's) type; cup of tea(Classifier: 條／条 c)
(colloquial) bad; inferior; disappointing; below average
(Hong Kong Cantonese, slang, derogatory) girlfriend (Classifier: 條／条 c; 樖 c)
a surname, Cai and Tsai

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

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