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早

Mandarin · pinyin zǎo

early
morning
Good morning!
long ago
prematurely

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Characters in this entry

早: zǎo · early; soon; morning

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

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Mandarin tones

3 · zao3

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1character link12same-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 · 8 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

zou2

Cantonese word readings for 早. 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

early; in advance; soon
long ago; for a long time
(early) morning
good morning
before; in the past time
(abbreviation, alt-of) short for 早上 (zǎoshang); a.m.
(Hainanese) breakfast
a surname

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

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