喂

See also: 餵

喂 U+5582, 喂 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-5582 ← 喁 [U+5581] CJK Unified Ideographs 喃 → [U+5583]

Translingual

Han character

喂 (Kangxi radical 30, 口+9, 12 strokes, Cangjie input 口田一女 (RWMV), four-corner 6603₂, composition ⿰口畏)

Derived characters

• 𣾿

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 197, character 14
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 3900
• Dae Jaweon: page 418, character 34
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 653, character 15
• Unihan data for U+5582

Chinese

simp. and trad.		喂

Glyph origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声): semantic 口 + phonetic 畏 (OC *quls).

Etymology 1

Probably influenced by Malay hoi.

Pronunciation 1

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): wèi (wei⁴)

  (Zhuyin): ㄨㄟˋ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): wai³
• Southern Min (Hokkien, POJ): eh

---

• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: wèi
    • Zhuyin: ㄨㄟˋ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: wèi
    • Wade–Giles: wei⁴
    • Yale: wèi
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: wey
    • Palladius: вэй (vɛj)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /weɪ̯⁵¹/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
    • Jyutping: wai³
    • Yale: wai
    • Cantonese Pinyin: wai³
    • Guangdong Romanization: wei³
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /wɐi̯³³/
• Southern Min
  • (Hokkien)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: eh
    • Tâi-lô: eh
    • Phofsit Daibuun: eq
    • Sinological IPA (Xiamen): /eʔ³²/
    • Sinological IPA (Quanzhou): /eʔ⁵/
    • Sinological IPA (Zhangzhou): /eʔ³²/
    • Sinological IPA (Taipei): /eʔ³²/
    • Sinological IPA (Kaohsiung): /eʔ³²/

Definitions

喂

1. (used to call attention) Hey!

   起身喇喂！ [Cantonese]  ―  hei² san¹ laa³ wai³! [Jyutping]  ―  Hey, get up!

   喂，你阻住條路喎！ [Cantonese, trad.]
   喂，你阻住条路㖞！ [Cantonese, simp.]

   wai³, nei⁵ zo² zyu⁶ tiu⁴ lou⁶ wo³! [Jyutping]

   Hey, you're in the way!

Pronunciation 2

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): wéi, wei, we (wei², wei⁵／wei⁰, we⁵／we⁰)

  (Zhuyin): ㄨㄟˊ, ˙ㄨㄟ, ˙ㄨㄝ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): wai² / wei²
• Southern Min

  (Hokkien, POJ): oeh / ôe

  (Teochew, Peng'im): uêi⁶ / uai⁶

• Wu (Shanghai, Wugniu): ⁵ue

---

• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: wéi
    • Zhuyin: ㄨㄟˊ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: wéi
    • Wade–Giles: wei²
    • Yale: wéi
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: wei
    • Palladius: вэй (vɛj)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /weɪ̯³⁵/
      
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: wei
    • Zhuyin: ˙ㄨㄟ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: we̊i
    • Wade–Giles: wei⁵
    • Yale: wei
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: .uei
    • Palladius: вэй (vɛj)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /weɪ̯/
      
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: we
    • Zhuyin: ˙ㄨㄝ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: we̊
    • Wade–Giles: weh⁵
    • Yale: we
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: .ue
    • Palladius: вэ (vɛ)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /wɛ/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
    • Jyutping: wai² / wei²
    • Yale: wái / wéi
    • Cantonese Pinyin: wai² / wei²
    • Guangdong Romanization: wei² / wéi²
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /wɐi̯³⁵/, /wei̯³⁵/
• Southern Min
  • (Hokkien)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: oeh / ôe
    • Tâi-lô: ueh / uê
    • Phofsit Daibuun: oeq, oee
    • Sinological IPA (Xiamen): /ueʔ³²/, /ue²⁴/
    • Sinological IPA (Quanzhou): /ueʔ⁵/, /ue²⁴/
    • Sinological IPA (Zhangzhou): /ueʔ³²/, /ue¹³/
    • Sinological IPA (Taipei): /ueʔ³²/, /ue²⁴/
    • Sinological IPA (Kaohsiung): /ueʔ³²/, /ue²³/
  • (Teochew)
    • Peng'im: uêi⁶ / uai⁶
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī-like: uĕ符i / uăi
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /uei³⁵/, /uai³⁵/
• Wu
  • (Northern: Shanghai)
    • Wugniu: ⁵ue
    • MiniDict: ue^去
    • Wiktionary Romanisation (Shanghai): ²ue
    • Sinological IPA (Shanghai): /ue³⁴/

Interjection

喂

1. hello?; yes? (greeting, used when responding to a call, such as a phone call)
2. (dated) Response when spoken to directly face-to-face: yes?

Etymology 2

For pronunciation and definitions of 喂 – see 餵 (“to feed; to raise; to keep”). (This character is the simplified form of 餵).

Notes: Simplified Chinese is mainly used in Mainland China, Malaysia, and Singapore. Traditional Chinese is mainly used in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

Further reading

• “喂”, in 教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwanese Taigi] (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2026.
• Embree, Bernard L.M. (1973), “ôe”, in A Dictionary of Southern Min (overall work in Hokkien, English, and Mandarin), Hong Kong: Hong Kong Language Institute, page 192.

Japanese

Kanji

喂

(Hyōgai kanji)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Readings

• Go-on: き (ki)
• Kan-on: かい (kai)
• Kan’yō-on: い (i)
• Kun: なげく (nageku, 喂く)

Korean

Hanja

喂 (eum 위 (wi))

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Vietnamese

Han character

喂: Hán Việt readings: uy, ổi, ô
喂: Nôm readings: ỏi, ôi, ói, oi, ơi, òi, ới, ui, hôi, úi, ội, ũy/uỹ, ối, uầy

1. chữ Nôm form of ôi (“oh; alas”)
2. chữ Nôm form of ơi (“vocative particle; oh, hey”)