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一言以蔽之

Mandarin · pinyin yī yán yǐ bì zhī

one word says it all (idiom, from Analects); to cut a long story short
in a nutshell

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Characters in this entry

一: yī · one; a, an; alone
言: yán · words, speech; speak, say; Kangxi radical 149
以: yǐ · by means of; thereby, therefore; consider as; in order to
蔽: bì · cover, hide, conceal; shelter
之: zhī · marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; go to

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

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Mandarin tones

1–2–3–4–1 · yi1 yan2 yi3 bi4 zhi1

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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 · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

jat1 jin4 ji5 bai3 zi1

Cantonese word readings for 一言以蔽之. 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) to summarize in a word; in a nutshell

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

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