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癥結

简症结 · 繁癥結

Mandarin · pinyin zhēng jié

hard lump in the abdomen (in Chinese medicine)
crux of an issue
main point in an argument
sticking point
deadlock in negotiations

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Characters in this entry

癥: Look up this written character
結: jié · knot, tie; join, connect
症: zhèng · disease, illness, ailment
结: jié · knot, tie; join, connect

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

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Mandarin tones

1–2 · zheng1 jie2

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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.

癥結 · find source passages ↗ · 症结 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 2 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

zing1 git3

Cantonese word readings for 癥結. 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

(traditional Chinese medicine) hard lump in the abdomen
(figurative) crux (of the issue); main point (in an argument); deadlock (in negotiations)

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

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