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元年

Mandarin · pinyin yuán nián

first year of an emperor's reign
first year of an era
first year of a significant time period

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Characters in this entry

元: yuán · first; dollar; origin; head
年: nián · year; new-years; person's age

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

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Mandarin tones

2–2 · yuan2 nian2

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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.

noun

(historical) first year of an imperial reign
(calendar) first year (of any period)

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

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