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劣

Mandarin · pinyin liè

inferior

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劣: liè · bad, inferior; slightly

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

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Mandarin tones

4 · lie4

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1character link37same-tone records

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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 · 3 senses · 2 Cantonese readings

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

lyut3 · lyut6

Cantonese word readings for 劣. 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.

character

(literary, or in compounds) small and weak; puny
(literary, or in compounds) bad; poor; inferior
(literary, or in compounds) slightly

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

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