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茶

Mandarin · pinyin chá

tea
tea plant
Classifier: 杯 bēi, 壺 hú

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茶: chá · tea

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

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Mandarin tones

2 · cha2

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1character link27same-tone records4source references

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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 · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

caa4

Cantonese word readings for 茶. 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

tea (plant, leaves)
tea (beverage made by infusing tea leaves in hot water) (Classifier: 杯; 壺／壶)
certain kinds of beverage or liquid food
Chinese medicine
yum cha
(obsolete) a moment (the time it takes to drink a cup of tea)
(dialectal Mandarin, Cantonese, Gan, Xiang, Wu) boiled or boiling water
(neologism, Internet slang, derogatory) appearing innocent while behaving in a calculating way, especially to attract sympathy or romantic interest
a surname

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

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