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一言

Mandarin · pinyin yī yán

one sentence
brief remark

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Characters in this entry

一: yī · one; a, an; alone
言: yán · words, speech; speak, say; Kangxi radical 149

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

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Mandarin tones

1–2 · yi1 yan2

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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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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

noun

(literary) one sentence; something to say; brief remark
(literary) one character

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

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