cân

Cân is a Vietnamese term with several related meanings. As a noun, it denotes weight or mass; as a verb, it means to weigh or to balance. In everyday language, cân often appears in phrases such as cân nặng (body weight) and cân bằng (to balance).

The term cân derives from the Chinese jin (斤), transmitted through historical contact and the Vietnamese writing system. Historically, cân served as a traditional unit of mass used in commerce; in many regions it coexisted with the metric system and other traditional units such as lạng and tạ; the exact value of a cân varied by era and locality.

A cân can refer to a weighing scale, especially a two-pan balance used in markets, warehouses, and laboratories; modern electronic scales are also called cân. Such devices are used to determine the mass of goods, ingredients, or other items.

The official Vietnamese system uses the kilogram as the standard unit of mass; in everyday speech, cân is commonly used to talk about weight, often implying roughly one kilogram, though the exact sense can vary. The term is also used metaphorically in expressions such as cân nhắc (to weigh or consider carefully).