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男女

Mandarin · pinyin nán nǚ

male-female
male and female

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Characters in this entry

男: nán · male, man; son; baron; surname
女: nǚ · woman, girl; feminine; Kangxi radical 38; 10th lunar mansion, determinative star ε Aquarii (Albali)

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

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Mandarin tones

2–3 · nan2 nu:3

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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 · 6 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

naam4 neoi5

Cantonese word readings for 男女. 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

man and woman; men and women; both sexes
(literary, in general) common people; the masses
(literary) sexual desire; lust
(literary) sons and daughters; children
(literary) Term of address for, or a humble term of address used by, a person who has low social status.
(literary) A term of abuse.

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

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