kei

See also: Appendix:Variations of "kei"

Languages (16)

Translingual • English

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Alemannic German • Basque • Cornish • Drehu • Dutch • Japanese • Kambera • Livonian • Mandarin • Māori • Mizo • Scots • Tedim Chin • Zou

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Page categories

Translingual

Etymology

From English Kei.

Symbol

kei

1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Kei.

See also

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Kei terms

English

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Japanese 軽 (kei, “lightweight”), from Japanese 軽自動車 (keijidōsha).

Noun

kei

1. (Japan) A class of lightweight vehicles with small engines.
   • 2025 August 21, Emi Tanimoto, “Nissan Updates Popular Kei Car as It Revamps Aging Lineup”, in Bloomberg News‎^[1], archived from the original on 22 August 2025:

     Nissan Motor Co. revamped one of its more popular lightweight kei cars as the Japanese carmaker refreshes its aging lineup. The fourth-generation Roox will go on sale by the end of the year for ¥1.6 million ($10,800), the company said Friday. The new model has better mileage, more safety features and built-in connectivity. Kei cars account for about a third of Japan’s automobile market and the Roox, a gasoline-powered automobile initially released in 2009, has sold an average of 80,000 units per year, making it one of the more popular kei models among the three that Nissan sells. The carmaker is releasing the vehicle as it looks to cut costs, eliminate jobs and shutter factories. […] Japan’s best-selling kei car is Honda Motor Co.’s N-BOX, which sold more than 200,000 units in 2024. Nissan’s Sakura, also a kei-sized electric car that sells more than 20,000 units annually, is the best-selling battery-powered vehicle in Japan.

Derived terms

• kei car

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Japanese 系 (kei, “style”).

Noun

kei

1. (Japan, aesthetic) A type of Japanese street fashion and music aesthetics.

Related terms

• angura kei
• Cult Party kei
• decora kei
• dolly kei
• fairy kei
• genderless kei
• girly kei
• jirai kei
• mori kei
• oshare kei
• Shibuya-kei
• visual kei

See also

• manpo-kei

Alemannic German

Etymology

From Middle High German enkein (“no, not any”), byform of nechein. The post-nasal position explains the affricate instead of otherwise expected /x/. Conflated with dechein (“any”, later also “no”). This latter form also contributed to the affricate by way of assimilation /tx/ > /kx/. Cognate with German kein, Dutch geen.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kxɛi̯/

Determiner

kei

1. no, not any; negates indefinite nouns

Usage notes

• The fuller nominative/accusative forms kein, keini are always employed in nominalized use (i.e. as pronouns), but optionally also as determiners.
• Following adjectives are always strong in the nominative/accusative singular, always weak in the dative. The nominative/accusative plural may be strong or weak. Predominantly (but not invariably) it is strong with the short form kei, weak with the full form keini.

Declension

	singular			plural
	masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative/accusative	kei(n)	kei(ni)	keis	kei(ni)
dative	keim	keiner(e)	keim	keine

Basque

Noun

kei

1. dative plural of ka

Cornish

Pronunciation

• (Revived Late Cornish) IPA^(key): [kəɪ]

Noun

kei m (plural keun)

1. alternative form of ki

Mutation

Mutation of kei

radical	soft	aspirate	hard	mixed
kei	gei	hei	unchanged	unchanged

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Cornish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Drehu

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kei/

Verb

kei

1. to fall

References

• Tyron, D.T., Hackman, B. (1983), Solomon Islands languages: An internal classification. Cited in: "Dehu" in Greenhill, S.J., Blust, R., & Gray, R.D. (2008). The Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database: From Bioinformatics to Lexomics. Evolutionary Bioinformatics, 4:271–283.
• Leenhardt, M. (1946), Langues et dialectes de l'Austro-Mèlanèsie. Cited in: "ⁿDe’u" in Greenhill, S.J., Blust, R., & Gray, R.D. (2008). The Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database: From Bioinformatics to Lexomics. Evolutionary Bioinformatics, 4:271–283.

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch key, keye, from Old Dutch *kei (in toponym keidīk (“Keidijk”)), perhaps from Proto-West Germanic *kagi (compare kegel (“cone”)), from Proto-Germanic *kagiz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɛi̯/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛi̯

Noun

kei m (plural keien, diminutive keitje n)

1. cobble, cobblestone
2. pebble
3. boulder
4. (figuratively) someone who's an expert at something, whiz

   Ze is een kei in wiskunde.

   She is a whiz at maths.

   Synonym: uitblinker

Derived terms

• kei-
• kei-interessant
• keigaaf
• keigezellig
• keigoed
• keihard
• keiig
• keikop
• keileuk
• keimooi
• keisteen
• keitof
• keiveel
• puntkei
• rolkei
• straatkei
• vuurkei
• zwerfkei

Anagrams

• eik

Japanese

Romanization

kei

1. Rōmaji transcription of けい
2. Rōmaji transcription of ケイ

Kambera

Verb

kei

1. (transitive) to buy
2. (transitive) to receive

References

• Marian Klamer (1998), A Grammar of Kambera, Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 199

Livonian

Verb

kei

1. first/third-person singular past indicative of kīedõ

Verb

ke’i

1. first/third-person singular past indicative of kǟdõ

Mandarin

Romanization

kei

1. nonstandard spelling of kēi
2. nonstandard spelling of kèi

Usage notes

• Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.

Māori

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkei/ [ˈkɛi]

Particle

kei

1. at, in (present locative particle)
2. have; in possession of
3. like; as

References

• “kei” in John C. Moorfield, Te Aka: Maori–English, English–Maori Dictionary and Index, 3rd edition, Longman/Pearson Education New Zealand, 2011, →ISBN.

Mizo

Etymology

From Proto-Kuki-Chin *kaj ~ kaj-maʔ, from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ka (“I; me”).

Pronoun

kei (plural keini)

1. I; me

See also

Mizo personal pronouns

Person	Clitic		Free
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
1st person	ka	kan	kei	keini
2nd person	i	in	nang	nangni
3rd person	a	an	ani	anni

Mizo verb agreement pronouns

Subject →		1st person		2nd person		3rd person
↓ Object		Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
1st person	Singular	—		mi ... min ...
	Plural
2nd person	Singular	ka ... che	kan ... che	—		a ... che	an ... che
	Plural	ka ... che u	kan ... che u			a ... che u	an ... che u
3rd person	Singular	ka ...	kan ...	i ...	in ...	a ...	an ...
	Plural

• mi and min, despite being originally singular and plural respectively, have been completely interchangeable since the early 20th century.
• The ellipses (...) indicate the location of the verb in relation to the agreement pronouns surrounding it.

References

• Lorrain, J. Herbert (1940), “kei”, in Dictionary of the Lushai language, Calcutta: Asiatic Society

Scots

Etymology

Variant spelling of kye, from Old English cǣg.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kʌj/

Noun

kei (plural keis)

1. (Southern Scots) a key

Tedim Chin

Etymology

From Proto-Kuki-Chin *kay, from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ka.

Pronoun

kei

1. I

References

• Zomi Ordbog based on the work of D.L. Haokip

Zou

Etymology

From Proto-Kuki-Chin *kay. Cognate with Mizo kěi.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [kéi̯]
• Hyphenation: kei

Pronoun

kéi

1. I

References

• Philip Thangliènmâng (2010), Minimal dictionary and Self-tutor Functional Grammar in Zo-English-Hindi, New Delhi: Zoculsin, →ISBN, page 131
• Lukram Himmat Singh (2013), A Descriptive Grammar of Zou (PhD thesis), Canchipur: Manipur University, page 72