Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A native or inhabitant of Guangzhou (formerly Canton).
  • noun The variety of Chinese spoken in and around Guangzhou.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of or pertaining to Canton.
  • noun A native of Canton.
  • noun The Chinese dialect of Canton.
  • noun A person who speaks the Cantonese dialect.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Relating to Canton.
  • adjective Relating to Cantonese people.
  • adjective Relating to Cantonese language.
  • noun countable An inhabitant of Canton; a person of Canton descent.
  • proper noun uncountable A Chinese language mainly spoken in the south-eastern part of Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, by the Chinese minorities in Southeast Asia and by many overseas Chinese worldwide.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the dialect of Chinese spoken in Canton and neighboring provinces and in Hong Kong and elsewhere outside China

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Canton +‎ -ese

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Examples

  • I told them about how I picked up my first words in Cantonese from the grandmother who lived with the family next door to me whan I lived in my first small Malaysian town twenty years ago.

    Cantonese for Beginners Sharon Bakar 2005

  • I told them about how I picked up my first words in Cantonese from the grandmother who lived with the family next door to me whan I lived in my first small Malaysian town twenty years ago.

    Archive 2005-04-01 Sharon Bakar 2005

  • Maybe, just maybe, your strong sentiment against Cantonese is the result of your subconscious racist attitude towards Chinese people?

    Global Voices in English » China: Considering Han chauvinism 2009

  • I teach him the words Love, Moon, and Father in Spanish, Cantonese, French.

    Daycare 2009

  • Maybe "tomorrow" one of those medical geniuses we kept consulting -- and paying -- would crunch all of those voluminous sheets of data they kept asking us to provide and figure out how a kid who spoke English and had words in Spanish, Cantonese and Tagalog at the age of three, now could not utter a word.

    Barbara Fischkin: Hillary Said the Word -- An Autism Mom Finally Feels Acknowledged 2008

  • As soon as I came to Malaysia I discovered Cantonese is not spoken as much as yelled, and with twelve excited and enthusiatic ladies crammed around my dining table, the decibels rose and rose.

    Cantonese for Beginners Sharon Bakar 2005

  • As soon as I came to Malaysia I discovered Cantonese is not spoken as much as yelled, and with twelve excited and enthusiatic ladies crammed around my dining table, the decibels rose and rose.

    Archive 2005-04-01 Sharon Bakar 2005

  • Chi is the same things as hay in Cantonese – as in wok hay.

    Tigers & Strawberries » The Chinese Cookbook Project 2005

  • There is great emphasis placed upon the aesthetic properties of food in Cantonese cuisine, and there is a lot of attention paid to contrasting colors, textures, tastes and scents of each dish.

    Tigers & Strawberries » Yin and Yang 2005

  • You are of course quite right to note that it is not merely a phonetical transcription, nonetheless, there is no direct connection to Black men, except for the fact that, when read deg kei in Cantonese it transcribes the English word "Darkie".

    languagehat.com: CHINESE SWEARING. 2005

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