企鵝 / 企鹅
kei⁵ ngo⁴
The Cantonese word for penguin is 企鵝 / 企鹅 (kei⁵ ngo⁴).
企鵝 / 企鹅 is the noun used to refer to the flightless sea bird known as a penguin.
Meaning: flightless sea bird (noun)
What does it mean word for word?
The word is composed of 企 (kei5), meaning 'to stand on tiptoe' or 'to stand upright' and 鵝 (ngo4), meaning 'goose'.
How do you pronounce it?
The romanization is kei5 ngo4.
Did you know?
- While 企鵝 means 'penguin', the character 企 is also used in the Cantonese word for 'company' or 'enterprise' 企業 (kei5 jip6).
- The term 企鵝步 (kei5 ngo4 bou6) can be used in Cantonese to describe the waddling walk of a toddler or someone carrying a heavy load.
- In many Chinese dialects, including Cantonese, naming animals often involves using a familiar land animal to describe a foreign or exotic creature.
Example sentences for Cantonese are not verified yet.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “penguin” translations, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
