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爭分奪秒

简争分夺秒 · 繁爭分奪秒

Mandarin · pinyin zhēng fēn duó miǎo

lit. fight minutes, snatch seconds (idiom); a race against time
making every second count

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Characters in this entry

爭: Look up this written character
分: fēn · divide; small unit of time etc.
奪: Look up this written character
秒: miǎo · beard of grain or corn; a second
争: zhēng · dispute, fight, contend, strive
夺: duó · take by force, rob, snatch

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

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Mandarin tones

1–1–2–3 · zheng1 fen1 duo2 miao3

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

zang1 fan1 dyut6 miu5

Pleco · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Word reading; meanings not aligned.

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

phrase

(idiomatic) to seize every minute; to race against time

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

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack