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老化

Mandarin · pinyin lǎo huà

(of a person, population or material) to age
(of knowledge) to become outdated

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Characters in this entry

老: lǎo · old, aged; experienced; Kangxi radical 125
化: huà · change, convert, reform; -ize

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

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Mandarin tones

3–4 · lao3 hua4

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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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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 4 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

lou5 faa3

Cantonese word readings for 老化. 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.

verb

(literal, of a person or population) to age; to grow old
(figurative) to become outdated; to become obsolete
(chemistry) to age
to degenerate; to atrophy

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

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