DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT
老子
Mandarin · pinyin lǎo zi#
Meanings · lǎo zi
- father
- daddy
- "I, your father" (in anger, or out of contempt)
- I (used arrogantly or jocularly)
Mandarin · pinyin Lǎo zǐ#
Meanings · Lǎo zǐ
- Laozi or Lao-tze (c. 500 BC), Chinese philosopher, the founder of Taoism
- the sacred book of Daoism, 道德經 Dào dé jīng by Laozi
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Mandarin tones
3–5 · lao3 zi5
Compare attested words with these syllables ↗Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.
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Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.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.
Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 6 senses · 1 Cantonese reading
Rime Cantonese 粵拼
lou5 zi2
Cantonese word readings for 老子. 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.
name
- Laozi (604–531 BCE), a Chinese philosopher, and founder of Taoism
- Laozi (also called Tao Te Ching, a book of philosophy supposedly written by Laozi)
pron
- (colloquial, chiefly men's speech, sometimes humorous) I; me
noun
- old man
- (slang) father; old man
- (dated or regional) son; young man (i.e. a mother scolding her son)
Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack