Wiktionary

kei

See also: Appendix:Variations of "kei"
Languages (16)
Translingual • English
Alemannic German • Basque • Cornish • Drehu • Dutch • Japanese • Kambera • Livonian • Mandarin • Māori • Mizo • Scots • Tedim Chin • Zou
Page categories

Translingual

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Etymology

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From English Kei.

Symbol

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kei

  1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Kei.

See also

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English

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Etymology 1

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Borrowed from Japanese 軽 (kei, “lightweight”), from Japanese 軽自動車 (keijidōsha).

Noun

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kei

  1. (Japan) A class of lightweight vehicles with small engines.
    • 2025 August 21, Emi Tanimoto, “Nissan Updates Popular Kei Car as It Revamps Aging Lineup”, in Bloomberg News‎[1], archived from the original on 22 August 2025:
      Nissan Motor Co. revamped one of its more popular lightweight kei cars as the Japanese carmaker refreshes its aging lineup. The fourth-generation Roox will go on sale by the end of the year for ¥1.6 million ($10,800), the company said Friday. The new model has better mileage, more safety features and built-in connectivity. Kei cars account for about a third of Japan’s automobile market and the Roox, a gasoline-powered automobile initially released in 2009, has sold an average of 80,000 units per year, making it one of the more popular kei models among the three that Nissan sells. The carmaker is releasing the vehicle as it looks to cut costs, eliminate jobs and shutter factories. […] Japan’s best-selling kei car is Honda Motor Co.’s N-BOX, which sold more than 200,000 units in 2024. Nissan’s Sakura, also a kei-sized electric car that sells more than 20,000 units annually, is the best-selling battery-powered vehicle in Japan.
Derived terms
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Etymology 2

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Borrowed from Japanese 系 (kei, “style”).

Noun

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kei

  1. (Japan, aesthetic) A type of Japanese street fashion and music aesthetics.
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Alemannic German

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Etymology

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From Middle High German enkein (“no, not any”), byform of nechein. The post-nasal position explains the affricate instead of otherwise expected /x/. Conflated with dechein (“any”, later also “no”). This latter form also contributed to the affricate by way of assimilation /tx/ > /kx/. Cognate with German kein, Dutch geen.

Pronunciation

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Determiner

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kei

  1. no, not any; negates indefinite nouns

Usage notes

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  • The fuller nominative/accusative forms kein, keini are always employed in nominalized use (i.e. as pronouns), but optionally also as determiners.
  • Following adjectives are always strong in the nominative/accusative singular, always weak in the dative. The nominative/accusative plural may be strong or weak. Predominantly (but not invariably) it is strong with the short form kei, weak with the full form keini.

Declension

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singular plural
masculine feminine neuter
nominative/accusative kei(n) kei(ni) keis kei(ni)
dative keim keiner(e) keim keine

Basque

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Noun

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kei

  1. dative plural of ka

Cornish

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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kei m (plural keun)

  1. alternative form of ki

Mutation

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Mutation of kei
radical soft aspirate hard mixed
kei gei hei unchanged unchanged

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Cornish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Drehu

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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kei

  1. to fall

References

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Dutch

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Etymology

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From Middle Dutch key, keye, from Old Dutch *kei (in toponym keidīk (“Keidijk”)), perhaps from Proto-West Germanic *kagi (compare kegel (“cone”)), from Proto-Germanic *kagiz.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /kɛi̯/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛi̯

Noun

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kei m (plural keien, diminutive keitje n)

  1. cobble, cobblestone
  2. pebble
  3. boulder
  4. (figuratively) someone who's an expert at something, whiz
    Synonym: uitblinker
    Ze is een kei in wiskunde.
    She is a whiz at maths.

Derived terms

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Anagrams

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Japanese

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Romanization

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kei

  1. Rōmaji transcription of けい
  2. Rōmaji transcription of ケイ

Kambera

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Verb

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kei

  1. (transitive) to buy
  2. (transitive) to receive

References

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  • Marian Klamer (1998), A Grammar of Kambera, Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 199

Livonian

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Verb

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kei

  1. first/third-person singular past indicative of kīedõ

Verb

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ke’i

  1. first/third-person singular past indicative of kǟdõ

Mandarin

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Romanization

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kei

  1. nonstandard spelling of kēi
  2. nonstandard spelling of kèi

Usage notes

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  • Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.

Māori

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Pronunciation

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Particle

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kei

  1. at, in (present locative particle)
  2. have; in possession of
  3. like; as

References

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  • John C. Moorfield (2011), “kei”, in Te Aka: Māori–English, English–Māori Dictionary and Index, 3rd edition, Longman/Pearson Education New Zealand, →ISBN

Mizo

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Etymology

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From Proto-Kuki-Chin *kaj ~ kaj-maʔ, from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ka (“I; me”).

Pronoun

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kei (plural keini)

  1. I; me

See also

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Mizo personal pronouns
Person Clitic Free
Singular Plural Singular Plural
1st person ka kan kei keini
2nd person i in nang nangni
3rd person a an ani anni
Mizo verb agreement pronouns
Subject → 1st person 2nd person 3rd person
↓ Object Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural
1st person Singular — mi ...
min ...
Plural
2nd person Singular ka ... che kan ... che — a ... che an ... che
Plural ka ... che u kan ... che u a ... che u an ... che u
3rd person Singular ka ... kan ... i ... in ... a ... an ...
Plural
  • mi and min, despite being originally singular and plural respectively, have been completely interchangeable since the early 20th century.
  • The ellipses (...) indicate the location of the verb in relation to the agreement pronouns surrounding it.

References

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Scots

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Etymology

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Variant spelling of kye, from Old English cǣg.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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kei (plural keis)

  1. (Southern Scots) a key

Tedim Chin

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Etymology

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From Proto-Kuki-Chin *kay, from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ka.

Pronoun

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kei

  1. I

References

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  • Zomi Ordbog based on the work of D.L. Haokip

Zou

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Etymology

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From Proto-Kuki-Chin *kay. Cognate with Mizo kěi.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): [kéi̯]
  • Hyphenation: kei

Pronoun

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kéi

  1. I

References

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  • Philip Thangliènmâng (2010), Minimal dictionary and Self-tutor Functional Grammar in Zo-English-Hindi, New Delhi: Zoculsin, →ISBN, page 131
  • Lukram Himmat Singh (2013), A Descriptive Grammar of Zou (PhD thesis), Canchipur: Manipur University, page 72
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