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功夫

Mandarin · pinyin gōng fu

skill
art
kung fu
labor
effort

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Characters in this entry

功: gōng · achievement, merit, good result
夫: fū · man, male adult, husband; those

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

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Mandarin tones

1–5 · gong1 fu5

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2character links1same-tone record

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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 · 4 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

gung1 fu1

Cantonese word readings for 功夫. 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

time available, required, or spent doing something
effort or labor applied to an undertaking, encompassing the actual work, chores, or manpower required
degree of mastery, skill, or internal cultivation acquired through prolonged discipline and practice (most notably referring to Chinese martial arts)

adj

(chiefly Southern Min or Teochew) meticulous, exquisite, or careful as a result of invested effort

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

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