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欠

Mandarin · pinyin qiàn

to owe
to lack
(literary) to be deficient in
(bound form) yawn
to raise slightly (a part of one's body)

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欠: qiàn · owe, lack, be deficient; Kangxi radical 76

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

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Mandarin tones

4 · qian4

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1character link30same-tone records

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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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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

him3

Cantonese word readings for 欠. 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

to lack; to be deficient
to owe
to ask for; to beg for
(Mandarin) to yawn
(Mandarin) to raise slightly (a part of the body)
(Mandarin, dialectal) to be fidgety and bungling
(Wuhan Mandarin) to miss somebody
(Leizhou Min, Hainanese) must; to have to

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

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