DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

麒麟

Mandarin · pinyin qí lín

(Chinese mythology) qilin
(old) giraffe

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

麒: qí · legendary auspicious animal
麟: lín · female of Chinese unicorn

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

2–2 · qi2 lin2

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

2character links3same-tone records

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

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.

麒麟 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Rime · Wiktionary

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

kei4 leon4

Cantonese word readings for 麒麟. 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.

noun

(Chinese mythology) qilin (propitious mythological beast) (Classifier: 隻／只 m c mn)
(figurative, literary) outstanding person; man of ability
(literary or Taiwanese Hokkien) giraffe (ruminant of the genus Giraffa) (Classifier: 隻／只 mn)

name

(～區) Qilin District (district in Qujing, Yunnan province, China)
(～鎮) Qilin (a town in Zongyang, Tongling, Anhui, China)

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

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