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耄耋

Mandarin · pinyin mào dié

extremely aged
gray and venerable

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Characters in this entry

耄: mào · elderly person; very old, senile
耋: dié · aged; in one's eighties

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Mandarin tones

4–2 · mao4 die2

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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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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

noun · Etymology 1

an elder of eighty or ninety

noun · Etymology 2

(Internet slang) an aggressive or feral cat, originally a specific orange stray dubbed 圓頭耄耋 /圆头耄耋 (“round-headed "Maodie"”)

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

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