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要飯

简要饭 · 繁要飯

Mandarin · pinyin yào fàn

to beg (for food or money)

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Characters in this entry

要: yào · necessary, essential; necessity
飯: fàn · cooked rice; food; meal
饭: fàn · cooked rice; food, meal

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

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Mandarin tones

4–4 · yao4 fan4

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3character 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.

要飯 · find source passages ↗ · 要饭 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 2 senses

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

verb

(literally) to want food
(verb-object) to beg for food

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

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