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插曲

Mandarin · pinyin chā qǔ

music played during a movie, play etc
incidental music
music played in a theatrical interlude
(fig.) incident
episode

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Characters in this entry

插: chā · insert, stick into; plant
曲: qū · crooked, bent; wrong, false

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

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Mandarin tones

1–3 · cha1 qu3

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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 · 3 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

caap3 kuk1

Cantonese word readings for 插曲. 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

interlude; intermezzo
subtheme (of a TV series)
(figurative) episode; interlude

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

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