Wei

• enPR: wā, IPA^(key): /weɪ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪ
• Homophones: way, weigh, wey; whey (wine–whine merger)

From Mandarin Chinese 魏 (Wèi).

• Ngwei

Wei

1. (historical) An ancient Chinese march during the Zhou dynasty
   • 1991, Gao Yuan, “Stratagem 2: Besiege the kingdom of Wei to save the kingdom of Zhao”, in Lure the Tiger out of the Mountains: The Thirty-six Stratagems of Ancient China‎^[1], Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 27:

     TO ASSAULT a strong and cohesive enemy head-on is to invite disaster. The stratagem of besieging the kingdom of Wei to save the kingdom of Zhao advocates indirect confrontation.

2. (historical) Liang, the realm of the earlier march after its elevation to a kingdom
3. (historical) A kingdom during the Three Kingdoms interregnum following China's Han dynasty.
   • 1979, Kuo-ch'ing Tu, edited by William Schultz, Li Ho‎^[2], Twayne Publishers, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 59:

     After the Empire of Han was taken over by Wei (220) in the fifth year of the Ch’ing-lung period (237), the statue was moved from Ch’ang-an, the capital of Han, to Hsü-ch’ang, the capital of Wei, in modern Honan province.

   • 2009 December 27, Beijing Newsroom, Lucy Hornby, “China says discovers tomb of famed general Cao Cao”, in Sugita Katyal, editor, Reuters‎^[3], archived from the original on 12 October 2025:

     Cao Cao was the final chancellor of the Eastern Han dynasty, who went on to form his own state during the political turmoil of the Three Kingdoms period. He died in 220 AD in Luoyang, the capital of the Eastern Han dynasty, and was posthumously named Emperor of the Wei state that he founded.

• Liang

From Mandarin Chinese 衞 / 卫 (Wèi).

• Wey

Wei

1. (historical) An ancient Chinese duchy during the Zhou dynasty

Wei

1. A river in China, a tributary of the Yellow River.

   Synonym: Wei River

• Saul B. Cohen, editor (1998), “Wei”, in The Columbia Gazetteer of the World‎^[4], volume 3, New York: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 3430, column 1
• “Wei”, in Google Books Ngram Viewer.

• Wie

Compare German Wein.

Wei m

1. (Erzgebirgisch) wine

• Branntewei

• Alte und neue Gedichte und Geschichten in erzgebirgischer Mundart, 12. Heft., P. 26
• Manfred Blechschmidt, Behüt eich fei dos Licht Ein Weihnachtsbuch des Erzgebirges P. 165
• Pfarrer Wild'sche und einige andre Gedichte, P. 11

From Middle Low German wei, from Old Saxon *hwei, from Proto-West Germanic *hwaij (“whey”).

Wei f (no plural) (German Low German)

1. whey

• Keeswei

From Old High German wīhī. Cognate with German Weihe.

• IPA^(key): /vɑɪ̯/
• Rhymes: -ɑɪ

Wei f (plural Weien)

1. (Christianity) consecration
2. (Christianity) ordination

• weien

Compare German Wein, Dutch wijn, English wine.

Wei m

1. wine

Wei m

1. wine

• Claus Stephani, Volksgut der Sathmarschwaben (1985)