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祖師

简祖师 · 繁祖師

Mandarin · pinyin zǔ shī

founder (of a craft, religious sect etc)

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Characters in this entry

祖: zǔ · ancestor, forefather; grandfather
師: shī · teacher, master, specialist; multitude, troops; hexagram ䷆
师: shī · teacher, master, specialist

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

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Mandarin tones

3–1 · zu3 shi1

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

zou2 si1

Cantonese word readings for 祖師. 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

founder (of a school of learning, or sect of Buddhism or Taoism); patriarch

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

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