音樂 / 音乐
jam¹ ngok⁶
The Cantonese word for music is 音樂 / 音乐 (jam¹ ngok⁶).
音樂 / 音乐 is a noun used to refer to sound that is organized in time in a melodious way.
Meaning: sound, organized in time in a melodious way (noun)
What does it mean word for word?
The word is composed of two characters: 音 (jam¹) meaning 'sound' or 'tone', and 樂 (ngok⁶) meaning 'pleasure' or 'joy'.
How do you pronounce it?
jam¹ ngok⁶
Did you know?
- The character 樂 is a rare example of a 'polyphone' where the meaning changes the pronunciation completely. While it sounds like 'ngok⁶' in 音樂 ('music'), it is pronounced 'lok⁶' when it means 'happiness' or 'pleasure'.
- In Cantonese opera, which is a cornerstone of local 音樂, the percussion is often more important than the melody to signal movements and mood changes to the actors.
- While 音樂 is the general term, Cantonese has a specific category called 古曲 ('gu² kuk¹') for traditional music that follows ancient scales, which are treated as a distinct discipline from modern music.
Example sentences for Cantonese are not verified yet.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “music” translations, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
