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風燭殘年

简风烛残年 · 繁風燭殘年

Mandarin · pinyin fēng zhú cán nián

one's late days
to have one foot in the grave

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Characters in this entry

風: fēng · wind; air; manners, atmosphere; Kangxi radical 182
燭: Look up this written character
殘: Look up this written character
年: nián · year; new-years; person's age
风: fēng · wind; air; manners, atmosphere
烛: zhú · candle, taper; shine, illuminate
残: cán · injure, spoil; oppress; broken

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

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Mandarin tones

1–2–2–2 · feng1 zhu2 can2 nian2

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

fung1 zuk1 caan4 nin4

Pleco · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Word reading; meanings not aligned.

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

phrase

(idiomatic) old and ailing like a candle guttering in the wind

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

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