Etymology

From Chinese 笙 (pinyin: shēng); character consists of upper part ("bamboo") and lower part ("born")

Noun

1. A Chinese wind instrument, being a free-reed mouth organ consisting of 13 or more bamboo pipes of various lengths, which are fixed at their bases in a wind chest made from a dried gourd (or, more recently, wood or chrome-plated brass).

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Noun

1. sound; voice; noise
   • huran yi-sheng juxiang.

   Suddenly there was a loud noise.

Noun

1. province

   Shaanxi shi Zhongguo de yige shěng. — Shaanxi is a province of China.

Pinyin syllable

sheng

1. A transliteration of any of a number of Chinese characters properly represented as having one of four tones, shēng, shéng, shěng, or shèng.

Usage notes

English transcriptions of Chinese speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Chinese language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.