"sai" meaning in English

See sai in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /saɪ/ Forms: sai [plural]
Rhymes: -aɪ Etymology: From Japanese 釵 (sai). Etymology templates: {{bor|en|ja|釵|tr=sai}} Japanese 釵 (sai) Head templates: {{en-noun|*}} sai (plural sai)
  1. A handheld weapon with three prongs, used in some Oriental martial arts.
    Sense id: en-sai-en-noun-wx83XM~q
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Etymology number: 1

Noun

Etymology: Compare Portuguese sahi, from Tupian sai (“monkey”). Etymology templates: {{cog|pt|sahi}} Portuguese sahi, {{der|en|tup}} Tupian Head templates: {{en-noun|?}} sai
  1. A sajou; a capuchin (monkey).
    Sense id: en-sai-en-noun-uQhUQig1
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Etymology number: 2

Noun

IPA: /saɪ˦˨/ [Singapore]
Etymology: Borrowed from Hokkien 屎 (sái, “shit”). Etymology templates: {{bor+|en|nan-hbl|屎|t=shit|tr=sái}} Borrowed from Hokkien 屎 (sái, “shit”) Head templates: {{en-noun|-}} sai (uncountable)
  1. (Singapore, Malaysia, colloquial, vulgar) Shit Tags: Malaysia, Singapore, colloquial, uncountable, vulgar Related terms: saw sam sai
    Sense id: en-sai-en-noun-AgeKZbwW Categories (other): Malaysian English, Singapore English, English entries with incorrect language header, Manglish, Singlish, New World monkeys, Weapons Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 23 23 55 Disambiguation of Manglish: 3 4 93 Disambiguation of Singlish: 13 5 82 Disambiguation of New World monkeys: 16 26 58 Disambiguation of Weapons: 26 15 59
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Etymology number: 3
{
  "etymology_number": 1,
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ja",
        "3": "釵",
        "tr": "sai"
      },
      "expansion": "Japanese 釵 (sai)",
      "name": "bor"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Japanese 釵 (sai).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "sai",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "sai (plural sai)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "A handheld weapon with three prongs, used in some Oriental martial arts."
      ],
      "id": "en-sai-en-noun-wx83XM~q",
      "links": [
        [
          "weapon",
          "weapon"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/saɪ/"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-aɪ"
    },
    {
      "homophone": "sigh"
    },
    {
      "homophone": "psi"
    },
    {
      "homophone": "xi"
    },
    {
      "homophone": "scye"
    },
    {
      "homophone": "Si"
    }
  ],
  "word": "sai"
}

{
  "etymology_number": 2,
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "pt",
        "2": "sahi"
      },
      "expansion": "Portuguese sahi",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "tup"
      },
      "expansion": "Tupian",
      "name": "der"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Compare Portuguese sahi, from Tupian sai (“monkey”).",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "?"
      },
      "expansion": "sai",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "A sajou; a capuchin (monkey)."
      ],
      "id": "en-sai-en-noun-uQhUQig1",
      "links": [
        [
          "sajou",
          "sajou"
        ],
        [
          "capuchin",
          "capuchin"
        ],
        [
          "monkey",
          "monkey"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "sai"
}

{
  "etymology_number": 3,
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "nan-hbl",
        "3": "屎",
        "t": "shit",
        "tr": "sái"
      },
      "expansion": "Borrowed from Hokkien 屎 (sái, “shit”)",
      "name": "bor+"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Borrowed from Hokkien 屎 (sái, “shit”).",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "sai (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Malaysian English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Singapore English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "23 23 55",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "3 4 93",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Manglish",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "13 5 82",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Singlish",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "16 26 58",
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "New World monkeys",
          "orig": "en:New World monkeys",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "26 15 59",
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Weapons",
          "orig": "en:Weapons",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              65,
              68
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1998 February 10, Thye Hoon Lin, “SM Lee was right - Johor is notorious for muggings!”, in soc.culture.malaysia (Usenet):",
          "text": "[…]the employer of the unfortunate maid that was forced to makan sai are indonesians.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              45,
              48
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1998 July 9, SimiSar, “[sangkancil] New HK airport faces barrage of criticism (fwd)”, in soc.culture.malaysia (Usenet):",
          "text": "It is Chek Lap Kok ho lang. You should makan sai. Are you an Orang Laut trying to speak Chinese?",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              82,
              85
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2003 April 18, Bone Toad, “Christ won”, in soc.culture.malaysia (Usenet):",
          "text": "go and take your morning shower and wash your arse with water and soap after pang sai",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Shit"
      ],
      "id": "en-sai-en-noun-AgeKZbwW",
      "links": [
        [
          "Shit",
          "shit#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Singapore, Malaysia, colloquial, vulgar) Shit"
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "saw sam sai"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Malaysia",
        "Singapore",
        "colloquial",
        "uncountable",
        "vulgar"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/saɪ˦˨/",
      "tags": [
        "Singapore"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "sai"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English indeclinable nouns",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English nouns with irregular plurals",
    "English terms borrowed from Hokkien",
    "English terms borrowed from Japanese",
    "English terms derived from Hokkien",
    "English terms derived from Japanese",
    "English terms with homophones",
    "English uncountable nouns",
    "Manglish",
    "Pages with 25 entries",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Rhymes:English/aɪ",
    "Rhymes:English/aɪ/1 syllable",
    "Singlish",
    "en:New World monkeys",
    "en:Weapons"
  ],
  "etymology_number": 1,
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ja",
        "3": "釵",
        "tr": "sai"
      },
      "expansion": "Japanese 釵 (sai)",
      "name": "bor"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Japanese 釵 (sai).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "sai",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "sai (plural sai)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "A handheld weapon with three prongs, used in some Oriental martial arts."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "weapon",
          "weapon"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/saɪ/"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-aɪ"
    },
    {
      "homophone": "sigh"
    },
    {
      "homophone": "psi"
    },
    {
      "homophone": "xi"
    },
    {
      "homophone": "scye"
    },
    {
      "homophone": "Si"
    }
  ],
  "word": "sai"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English nouns with unknown or uncertain plurals",
    "English terms borrowed from Hokkien",
    "English terms derived from Hokkien",
    "English terms derived from Tupian languages",
    "English uncountable nouns",
    "Manglish",
    "Pages with 25 entries",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Singlish",
    "en:New World monkeys",
    "en:Weapons"
  ],
  "etymology_number": 2,
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "pt",
        "2": "sahi"
      },
      "expansion": "Portuguese sahi",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "tup"
      },
      "expansion": "Tupian",
      "name": "der"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Compare Portuguese sahi, from Tupian sai (“monkey”).",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "?"
      },
      "expansion": "sai",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "A sajou; a capuchin (monkey)."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "sajou",
          "sajou"
        ],
        [
          "capuchin",
          "capuchin"
        ],
        [
          "monkey",
          "monkey"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "sai"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms borrowed from Hokkien",
    "English terms derived from Hokkien",
    "English uncountable nouns",
    "Manglish",
    "Pages with 25 entries",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Singlish",
    "en:New World monkeys",
    "en:Weapons"
  ],
  "etymology_number": 3,
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "nan-hbl",
        "3": "屎",
        "t": "shit",
        "tr": "sái"
      },
      "expansion": "Borrowed from Hokkien 屎 (sái, “shit”)",
      "name": "bor+"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Borrowed from Hokkien 屎 (sái, “shit”).",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "sai (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "saw sam sai"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English colloquialisms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English vulgarities",
        "Malaysian English",
        "Singapore English"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              65,
              68
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1998 February 10, Thye Hoon Lin, “SM Lee was right - Johor is notorious for muggings!”, in soc.culture.malaysia (Usenet):",
          "text": "[…]the employer of the unfortunate maid that was forced to makan sai are indonesians.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              45,
              48
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1998 July 9, SimiSar, “[sangkancil] New HK airport faces barrage of criticism (fwd)”, in soc.culture.malaysia (Usenet):",
          "text": "It is Chek Lap Kok ho lang. You should makan sai. Are you an Orang Laut trying to speak Chinese?",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              82,
              85
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2003 April 18, Bone Toad, “Christ won”, in soc.culture.malaysia (Usenet):",
          "text": "go and take your morning shower and wash your arse with water and soap after pang sai",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Shit"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Shit",
          "shit#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Singapore, Malaysia, colloquial, vulgar) Shit"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Malaysia",
        "Singapore",
        "colloquial",
        "uncountable",
        "vulgar"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/saɪ˦˨/",
      "tags": [
        "Singapore"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "sai"
}

Download raw JSONL data for sai meaning in English (4.2kB)

{
  "called_from": "query_wikidata_json",
  "msg": "WIKIDATA QUERY failed",
  "path": [
    "sai",
    "Template:der",
    "#invoke",
    "#invoke",
    "Lua:Module:etymology/templates:derived()"
  ],
  "section": "English",
  "subsection": "",
  "title": "sai",
  "trace": "<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html lang=\"en\">\n<meta charset=\"utf-8\">\n<title>Wikimedia Error</title>\n<style>\n* { margin: 0; padding: 0; }\nbody { background: #fff; font: 15px/1.6 sans-serif; color: #333; }\n.content { margin: 7% auto 0; padding: 2em 1em 1em; max-width: 640px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; flex-wrap: wrap; }\n.footer { clear: both; margin-top: 14%; border-top: 1px solid #e5e5e5; background: #f9f9f9; padding: 2em 0; font-size: 0.8em; text-align: center; }\nimg { margin: 0 2em 2em 0; }\na img { border: 0; }\nh1 { margin-top: 1em; font-size: 1.2em; }\n.content-text { flex: 1; }\np { margin: 0.7em 0 1em 0; }\na { color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none; }\na:hover { text-decoration: underline; }\ncode { font-family: sans-serif; }\nsummary { font-weight: bold; cursor: pointer; }\ndetails[open] { background: #970302; color: #dfdedd; }\n.text-muted { color: #777; }\n@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {\n  a { color: #9e9eff; }\n  body { background: transparent; color: #ddd; }\n  .footer { border-top: 1px solid #444; background: #060606; }\n  #logo { filter: invert(1) hue-rotate(180deg); }\n  .text-muted { color: #888; }\n}\n</style>\n<meta name=\"color-scheme\" content=\"light dark\">\n<div class=\"content\" role=\"main\">\n<a href=\"https://www.wikimedia.org\"><img id=\"logo\" src=\"https://www.wikimedia.org/static/images/wmf-logo.png\" srcset=\"https://www.wikimedia.org/static/images/wmf-logo-2x.png 2x\" alt=\"Wikimedia\" width=\"135\" height=\"101\">\n</a>\n<div class=\"content-text\">\n<h1>Error</h1>\n\n<p>Your bot is making too many requests. Please reduce your request rate or contact bot-traffic@wikimedia.org (f263c81)</p>\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"footer\"><p>If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below.</p><p class=\"text-muted\"><code>Request served via cp3073 cp3073, Varnish XID 434836649<br>Upstream caches: cp3073 int<br>Error: 429, Your bot is making too many requests. Please reduce your request rate or contact bot-traffic@wikimedia.org (f263c81) at Mon, 23 Mar 2026 18:48:07 GMT<br><details><summary>Sensitive client information</summary>IP address: 91.207.79.37</details></code></p>\n</div>\n</html>\n"
}

{
  "called_from": "query_wikidata_json",
  "msg": "WIKIDATA QUERY failed",
  "path": [
    "sai",
    "Template:der",
    "#invoke",
    "#invoke",
    "Lua:Module:etymology/templates:derived()"
  ],
  "section": "English",
  "subsection": "",
  "title": "sai",
  "trace": "<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html lang=\"en\">\n<meta charset=\"utf-8\">\n<title>Wikimedia Error</title>\n<style>\n* { margin: 0; padding: 0; }\nbody { background: #fff; font: 15px/1.6 sans-serif; color: #333; }\n.content { margin: 7% auto 0; padding: 2em 1em 1em; max-width: 640px; display: flex; flex-direction: row; flex-wrap: wrap; }\n.footer { clear: both; margin-top: 14%; border-top: 1px solid #e5e5e5; background: #f9f9f9; padding: 2em 0; font-size: 0.8em; text-align: center; }\nimg { margin: 0 2em 2em 0; }\na img { border: 0; }\nh1 { margin-top: 1em; font-size: 1.2em; }\n.content-text { flex: 1; }\np { margin: 0.7em 0 1em 0; }\na { color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none; }\na:hover { text-decoration: underline; }\ncode { font-family: sans-serif; }\nsummary { font-weight: bold; cursor: pointer; }\ndetails[open] { background: #970302; color: #dfdedd; }\n.text-muted { color: #777; }\n@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {\n  a { color: #9e9eff; }\n  body { background: transparent; color: #ddd; }\n  .footer { border-top: 1px solid #444; background: #060606; }\n  #logo { filter: invert(1) hue-rotate(180deg); }\n  .text-muted { color: #888; }\n}\n</style>\n<meta name=\"color-scheme\" content=\"light dark\">\n<div class=\"content\" role=\"main\">\n<a href=\"https://www.wikimedia.org\"><img id=\"logo\" src=\"https://www.wikimedia.org/static/images/wmf-logo.png\" srcset=\"https://www.wikimedia.org/static/images/wmf-logo-2x.png 2x\" alt=\"Wikimedia\" width=\"135\" height=\"101\">\n</a>\n<div class=\"content-text\">\n<h1>Error</h1>\n\n<p>Your bot is making too many requests. Please reduce your request rate or contact bot-traffic@wikimedia.org (f263c81)</p>\n</div>\n</div>\n<div class=\"footer\"><p>If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below.</p><p class=\"text-muted\"><code>Request served via cp3073 cp3073, Varnish XID 416894536<br>Upstream caches: cp3073 int<br>Error: 429, Your bot is making too many requests. Please reduce your request rate or contact bot-traffic@wikimedia.org (f263c81) at Mon, 23 Mar 2026 18:49:03 GMT<br><details><summary>Sensitive client information</summary>IP address: 91.207.79.37</details></code></p>\n</div>\n</html>\n"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-03-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-03-03 using wiktextract (05c257f and 9d9a410). 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.