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臨

简临 · 繁臨

Mandarin · pinyin lín

to face
to overlook
to arrive
to be (just) about to
just before

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臨: Look up this written character
临: lín · draw near, approach; descend

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

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Mandarin tones

2 · lin2

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1character link50same-tone records

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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.

臨 · find source passages ↗ · 临 · find source passages ↗

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

lam4 · lam6

Cantonese word readings for 臨. 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.

character · Etymology 1

to overlook; to look over; to look down at
to come down; to descend
to arrive
to face; to border; to be adjacent to
to be faced with; to be confronted by
just before; approaching; about to
to copy; to trace
(historical) a type of siege engine
19th hexagram of the I Ching
a surname

character · Etymology 1

(obsolete) to mourn for a deceased person; to wail in lamentation of a death

character · Etymology 2

(Hokkien) close (to an edge)
(Hokkien) to approach; to get close to; to be almost

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

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack