Cantonese

noun

Can·​ton·​ese ˌkan-tə-ˈnēz 

-ˈnēs

plural Cantonese

1

: a native or inhabitant of Guangzhou, China

2

: the dialect of Chinese spoken in Guangzhou and Hong Kong

3

: a style of Chinese cooking that emphasizes fresh ingredients, subtle tastes, and relatively mild sauces

Cantonese adjective

Examples of Cantonese in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Our parents, who came to the United States separately from Guangzhou, China, in the late 1960s and early 1970s by way of Hong Kong, spoke mostly the Chinese dialects Cantonese and Taishanese to us, but also possessed fluent English from their education in colonial Hong Kong. —Kat Chow, The Atlantic, 25 Sep. 2023

National Security police questioned Chan about an essay contest the group hosted three years earlier for literature composed in Cantonese, the lingua franca of Hong Kong. —Gina Anne Tam, Foreign Affairs, 19 Sep. 2023

Donya speaks Dari with fellow Afghans and English with her co-workers, but the cookie factory is run by people who talk to one another in Cantonese. —Mark Jenkins, Washington Post, 12 Sep. 2023

Wong said Cantonese includes a lot of slang and phrases that aren’t normally said in Mandarin or English. —Austindedios, oregonlive, 12 Sep. 2023

The camera pans around Wang, and his speech suddenly changes from subtitled Cantonese to fluent American English, turning the audience into native speakers of his language. —Jasper Lo, The New Yorker, 12 Sep. 2023

Zoé Tong Austin Opening: October Simone Tong is known in New York for the Sichuan and Cantonese cooking on display at her restaurants Silver Apricot and Little Tong Noodle Shop. —Kate Kassin, Bon Appétit, 7 Sep. 2023

Born in Hong Kong and raised in the United States, Lee found success in Asia throughout the 1990s, selling millions of albums with songs in English, Mandarin and Cantonese. —Berry Wang, CNN, 25 Aug. 2023

Filmmaker and activist Curtis Chin’s coming-of-age memoir looks at how Chung’s Cantonese Cuisine in Detroit became his home away from home. —Shannon Carlin, Time, 23 Aug. 2023

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Word History

Etymology

Canton Guangzhou, ultimately from Portuguese Cantão, from Chinese (Guangzhou) Gwóngdūng Guangdong

First Known Use

1857, in the meaning defined at sense 1