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寥寥

Mandarin · pinyin liáo liáo

very few

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寥: liáo · few, scarce; empty, deserted

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

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Mandarin tones

2–2 · liao2 liao2

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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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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 5 senses

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

adj

(literary, ideophonic) hollow; empty
(literary, ideophonic) lonely; lonesome
(ideophonic) very few; hardly any; handful of
(literary, ideophonic) vast; spacious
(literary, ideophonic) clear and melodious

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

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