CJK character 乜

In Cantonese, 乜 means “what.” The fuller 乜嘢 literally asks “what thing”; 乜人 asks “who,” while 做乜 and 為乜 can mean “why?” or “what for.”

Its uses are older and broader than the Cantonese question word. A Taiwan Ministry of Education dictionary records 乜斜 for squinting or looking askance, with a Yuan-dynasty example, and lists 乜 as a surname. 19th-century Cantonese material records 乜誰 (“who?”) as a neutral question.

A CUHK study of Minnan (Southern Min Chinese) also records a related 物/乜 question-word line. Cantonese writers use 乜 to represent spoken vernacular questions; this belongs to an evolving writing tradition rather than a one-off invention.

What does 乜 mean when someone sends it?

Usually “what?”; placement can turn it into a challenge. A bare 乜 asks for missing information. In Cantonese usage, sentence-initial 乜 followed by a final particle can form a rhetorical or sarcastic question, so the sender may be pushing back instead of asking literally.

In modern Cantonese, 乜水 (“what person?”) is a belittling way to refer to someone. It can sound contemptuous, so avoid it for a stranger unless you mean that edge. Repeated 乜乜 or 乜乜乜 can leave several things, reasons, places, or syllables unspecified.

Why do I see 咩 instead of 乜?

咩 is the casual contracted form of 乜嘢. It writes the same Cantonese question word in a shorter spoken form; it is a different character, but the basic “what?” meaning stays.

A 2020 Cantonese corpus describes that contraction in casual connected speech, which explains why informal writing may use either form.