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倒反

Mandarin · pinyin dào fǎn

instead
on the contrary
contrary (to expectations)

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Characters in this entry

倒: dào · fall over; lie down; take turns
反: fǎn · reverse, opposite, contrary, anti

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

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Mandarin tones

4–3 · dao4 fan3

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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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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

adv

unexpectedly; instead; contrary to expectations
reversed; inverted; opposite

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

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