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上位

Mandarin · pinyin shàng wèi

seat of honor
person in a high-ranking position
to be promoted to a more senior role
(genetics) epistatic

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Characters in this entry

上: shàng · top; superior, highest; go up, send up
位: wèi · throne; position, post; rank, status; seat

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4–4 · shang4 wei4

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 6 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

soeng5 wai2

Cantonese word readings for 上位. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

noun

(literary) higher rank; upper rank
(literary) seat of honour; top seat

verb

(verb-object) to get promoted; to move to a higher position
(Hong Kong, of the deceased) to move into a niche
(neologism, derogatory, of a mistress) to successfully displace one's original wife or husband
(genetics) to exert epistatic effect on another gene

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

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