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七老八十

Mandarin · pinyin qī lǎo bā shí

in one's seventies (age)
very old (of people)

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Characters in this entry

七: qī · seven
老: lǎo · old, aged; experienced; Kangxi radical 125
八: bā · eight; all around, all sides
十: shí · ten, tenth; complete; perfect

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

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Mandarin tones

1–3–1–2 · qi1 lao3 ba1 shi2

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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

cat1 lou5 baat3 sap6

Cantonese word readings for 七老八十. 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) very old; in one's old age

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

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