"ma fan" meaning in English

See ma fan in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

IPA: [ˈmä˨˦ fän˨(˦)] [Singapore] Forms: more ma fan [comparative], most ma fan [superlative], mafan [alternative]
Etymology: Borrowed from Mandarin 麻煩 /麻烦 (máfán). Etymology templates: {{bor|en|cmn|麻煩|tr=máfán}} Mandarin 麻煩 /麻烦 (máfán) Head templates: {{en-adj|nolink=1}} ma fan (comparative more ma fan, superlative most ma fan)
  1. (Singlish, Chinese Singaporean, colloquial, predicative) Troublesome, involving much hassle. Tags: Singlish, colloquial, predicative Synonyms: leceh [Singlish], lor sor

Alternative forms

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "cmn",
        "3": "麻煩",
        "tr": "máfán"
      },
      "expansion": "Mandarin 麻煩 /麻烦 (máfán)",
      "name": "bor"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Borrowed from Mandarin 麻煩 /麻烦 (máfán).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "more ma fan",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "most ma fan",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "mafan",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "nolink": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "ma fan (comparative more ma fan, superlative most ma fan)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Mandarin terms with non-redundant manual transliterations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Singlish",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Troublesome, involving much hassle."
      ],
      "id": "en-ma_fan-en-adj-m4fka~AO",
      "links": [
        [
          "Troublesome",
          "troublesome#English"
        ],
        [
          "hassle",
          "hassle"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "Chinese Singaporean",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Singlish, Chinese Singaporean, colloquial, predicative) Troublesome, involving much hassle."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "tags": [
            "Singlish"
          ],
          "word": "leceh"
        },
        {
          "word": "lor sor"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Singlish",
        "colloquial",
        "predicative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "[ˈmä˨˦ fän˨(˦)]",
      "tags": [
        "Singapore"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "ma fan"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "cmn",
        "3": "麻煩",
        "tr": "máfán"
      },
      "expansion": "Mandarin 麻煩 /麻烦 (máfán)",
      "name": "bor"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Borrowed from Mandarin 麻煩 /麻烦 (máfán).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "more ma fan",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "most ma fan",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "mafan",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "nolink": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "ma fan (comparative more ma fan, superlative most ma fan)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English adjectives",
        "English colloquialisms",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms borrowed from Mandarin",
        "English terms derived from Mandarin",
        "Mandarin terms with non-redundant manual transliterations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Singlish"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Troublesome, involving much hassle."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Troublesome",
          "troublesome#English"
        ],
        [
          "hassle",
          "hassle"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "Chinese Singaporean",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Singlish, Chinese Singaporean, colloquial, predicative) Troublesome, involving much hassle."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "tags": [
            "Singlish"
          ],
          "word": "leceh"
        },
        {
          "word": "lor sor"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Singlish",
        "colloquial",
        "predicative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "[ˈmä˨˦ fän˨(˦)]",
      "tags": [
        "Singapore"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "ma fan"
}

Download raw JSONL data for ma fan meaning in English (1.4kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-08-20 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-08-05 using wiktextract (872fc7b and 4deed51). 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.