See Sheng in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_links": [
[
"Swahili",
"Swahili#English"
],
[
"English",
"English#English"
]
],
"etymology_number": "1",
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "Swahili",
"3": "English"
},
"expansion": "Blend of Swahili + English",
"name": "blend"
}
],
"etymology_text": "Blend of Swahili + English.",
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "Sheng",
"name": "en-proper noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "name",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English blends",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "94 6",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "94 6",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English undefined derivations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "62 38",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 2 entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "69 31",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
158,
163
],
[
379,
384
]
],
"ref": "2009, Michela Wrong, It’s Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle Blower:",
"text": "English and Kiswahili might be Kenya’s official languages, but pupils tumbling out of school and students in the university canteens chatter to each other in Sheng, to their teachers’ despair. A witty, cheeky, freewheeling Clockwork Orange-style brew of Kiswahili, English and indigenous Kenyan languages, with added dollops of reggae jargon, American slang, French and Spanish, Sheng originated in Nairobi’s Eastlands slums in the 1980s.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A Kenyan cant based on Swahili and English."
],
"id": "en-Sheng-en-name-GFlzHubh",
"links": [
[
"Kenyan",
"Kenyan"
],
[
"cant",
"cant"
],
[
"Swahili",
"Swahili"
],
[
"English",
"English"
]
],
"related": [
{
"word": "Engsh"
}
]
}
],
"word": "Sheng"
}
{
"etymology_links": [
[
"盛",
"盛#Mandarin"
],
[
"Shing",
"Shing#English"
],
[
"Seng",
"Seng#English"
],
[
"Sing",
"Sing#English"
],
[
"生",
"生#Mandarin"
],
[
"Sang",
"Sang#English"
]
],
"etymology_number": "2",
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "zh",
"3": "-"
},
"expansion": "Chinese",
"name": "uder"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "cmn",
"3": "盛"
},
"expansion": "Mandarin 盛",
"name": "der"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "Shing",
"3": "Seng",
"4": "Sing"
},
"expansion": "Doublet of Shing, Seng, and Sing",
"name": "doublet"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "cmn",
"3": "生"
},
"expansion": "Mandarin 生",
"name": "der"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "Sang"
},
"expansion": "Doublet of Sang",
"name": "doublet"
}
],
"etymology_text": "From several Chinese surnames, including:\n* From Mandarin 盛. Doublet of Shing, Seng, and Sing.\n* From Mandarin 生. Doublet of Sang.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "Shengs",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "s"
},
"expansion": "Sheng (plural Shengs)",
"name": "en-proper noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "name",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English surnames",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A surname from Chinese."
],
"id": "en-Sheng-en-name-4TuPt0~5",
"links": [
[
"surname",
"surname"
]
]
}
],
"word": "Sheng"
}
{
"categories": [
"English blends",
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English proper nouns",
"English terms derived from Chinese",
"English uncountable nouns",
"English undefined derivations",
"Pages with 2 entries",
"Pages with entries"
],
"etymology_links": [
[
"Swahili",
"Swahili#English"
],
[
"English",
"English#English"
]
],
"etymology_number": "1",
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "Swahili",
"3": "English"
},
"expansion": "Blend of Swahili + English",
"name": "blend"
}
],
"etymology_text": "Blend of Swahili + English.",
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "Sheng",
"name": "en-proper noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "name",
"related": [
{
"word": "Engsh"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
158,
163
],
[
379,
384
]
],
"ref": "2009, Michela Wrong, It’s Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle Blower:",
"text": "English and Kiswahili might be Kenya’s official languages, but pupils tumbling out of school and students in the university canteens chatter to each other in Sheng, to their teachers’ despair. A witty, cheeky, freewheeling Clockwork Orange-style brew of Kiswahili, English and indigenous Kenyan languages, with added dollops of reggae jargon, American slang, French and Spanish, Sheng originated in Nairobi’s Eastlands slums in the 1980s.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A Kenyan cant based on Swahili and English."
],
"links": [
[
"Kenyan",
"Kenyan"
],
[
"cant",
"cant"
],
[
"Swahili",
"Swahili"
],
[
"English",
"English"
]
]
}
],
"word": "Sheng"
}
{
"categories": [
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English proper nouns",
"English terms derived from Chinese",
"English undefined derivations",
"Pages with 2 entries",
"Pages with entries"
],
"etymology_links": [
[
"盛",
"盛#Mandarin"
],
[
"Shing",
"Shing#English"
],
[
"Seng",
"Seng#English"
],
[
"Sing",
"Sing#English"
],
[
"生",
"生#Mandarin"
],
[
"Sang",
"Sang#English"
]
],
"etymology_number": "2",
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "zh",
"3": "-"
},
"expansion": "Chinese",
"name": "uder"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "cmn",
"3": "盛"
},
"expansion": "Mandarin 盛",
"name": "der"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "Shing",
"3": "Seng",
"4": "Sing"
},
"expansion": "Doublet of Shing, Seng, and Sing",
"name": "doublet"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "cmn",
"3": "生"
},
"expansion": "Mandarin 生",
"name": "der"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "Sang"
},
"expansion": "Doublet of Sang",
"name": "doublet"
}
],
"etymology_text": "From several Chinese surnames, including:\n* From Mandarin 盛. Doublet of Shing, Seng, and Sing.\n* From Mandarin 生. Doublet of Sang.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "Shengs",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "s"
},
"expansion": "Sheng (plural Shengs)",
"name": "en-proper noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "name",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English surnames",
"English surnames from Chinese"
],
"glosses": [
"A surname from Chinese."
],
"links": [
[
"surname",
"surname"
]
]
}
],
"word": "Sheng"
}
Download raw JSONL data for Sheng meaning in English (3.1kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-10-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-10-01 using wiktextract (19f9a30 and 6f96ddf). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.