"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). As the use of the neutral tone is not conventional in Singaporean Mandarin, the second syllable is realised with tone number 2. Etymology templates: {{bor|en|cmn|麻煩|tr=máfán}} Mandarin 麻煩 /麻烦 (máfán) Head templates: {{en-adj|nolinkhead=1}} ma fan (comparative more ma fan, superlative most ma fan)
  1. (Chinese Singaporean, colloquial, predicative) Troublesome, involving much hassle. Wikipedia link: Singaporean Mandarin Tags: 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). As the use of the neutral tone is not conventional in Singaporean Mandarin, the second syllable is realised with tone number 2.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "more ma fan",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "most ma fan",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "mafan",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "nolinkhead": "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": "Singapore English",
          "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": [
        "(Chinese Singaporean, colloquial, predicative) Troublesome, involving much hassle."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "tags": [
            "Singlish"
          ],
          "word": "leceh"
        },
        {
          "word": "lor sor"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "predicative"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Singaporean Mandarin"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "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). As the use of the neutral tone is not conventional in Singaporean Mandarin, the second syllable is realised with tone number 2.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "more ma fan",
      "tags": [
        "comparative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "most ma fan",
      "tags": [
        "superlative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "mafan",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "nolinkhead": "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",
        "Singapore English"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Troublesome, involving much hassle."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Troublesome",
          "troublesome#English"
        ],
        [
          "hassle",
          "hassle"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "Chinese Singaporean",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Chinese Singaporean, colloquial, predicative) Troublesome, involving much hassle."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "tags": [
            "Singlish"
          ],
          "word": "leceh"
        },
        {
          "word": "lor sor"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "predicative"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Singaporean Mandarin"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "[ˈmä˨˦ fän˨˦]",
      "tags": [
        "Singapore"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "ma fan"
}

Download raw JSONL data for ma fan meaning in English (1.6kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-08-07 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-08-02 using wiktextract (8b3c49c and 3c020d2). 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.