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一字之師

简一字之师 · 繁一字之師

Mandarin · pinyin yī zì zhī shī

one who can correct a misread or misspelt character and thus be your master

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Characters in this entry

一: yī · one; a, an; alone
字: zì · letter, character, word
之: zhī · marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; go to
師: shī · teacher, master, specialist; multitude, troops; hexagram ䷆
师: shī · teacher, master, specialist

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

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Mandarin tones

1–4–1–1 · yi1 zi4 zhi1 shi1

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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.

一字之師 · find source passages ↗ · 一字之师 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

jat1 zi6 zi1 si1

Cantonese word readings for 一字之師. 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.

phrase

(idiomatic) a teacher of one word; one who can significantly improve the quality of another's writing by changing one word and thus becomes his teacher

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

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