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女書

简女书 · 繁女書

Mandarin · pinyin nǚ shū

nüshu writing, a phonetic syllabary for Yao ethnic group 瑤族 Yáo zú dialect designed and used by women in Jiangyong county 江永縣 Jiāng yǒng xiàn in southern Hunan

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Characters in this entry

女: nǚ · woman, girl; feminine; Kangxi radical 38; 10th lunar mansion, determinative star ε Aquarii (Albali)
書: Look up this written character
书: shū · book, letter, document; writings

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

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Mandarin tones

3–1 · nu:3 shu1

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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.

女書 · find source passages ↗ · 女书 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

neoi5 syu1

Cantonese word readings for 女書. 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.

name

(historical) Nüshu (syllabic script which was used exclusively among the ethnic Yao women of Jiangyong, Hunan, China)

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

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