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老娘

Mandarin · pinyin lǎo niáng

my old mother
I, this old woman
my old lady (colloquial)
maternal grandmother
midwife

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Characters in this entry

老: lǎo · old, aged; experienced; Kangxi radical 125
娘: niáng · mother; young girl; woman; wife

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

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Mandarin tones

3–2 · lao3 niang2

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2character links1same-tone record

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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 · 9 senses

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

noun

(colloquial) (my) old mother
(Ürümqi, Wuhan and Yangzhou Mandarin, Pinghua, non-face-to-face) mother
(dialectal) wife

pron

(colloquial) form of self-address used by a conceited middle-aged or elderly married woman: I; me

noun

(dated) female midwife
(dated) wet nurse
(alt-of, alternative) alternative form of 姥娘 (lǎoniáng, “maternal grandmother”)
(Shanxi) great-grandmother
(Shanghainese, dated) female brothel keeper

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

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