三伏

Mandarin · pinyin sān fú

Meanings

  1. the three annual periods of hot weather, namely 初伏 chū fú, 中伏 zhōng fú and 末伏 mò fú, which run consecutively over a period from mid-July to late August
Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

三
sān · three
伏
fú · crouch, crawl, lie hidden, conceal
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

1–2 · san1 fu2

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

2character links3source references
Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗
Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

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.

三伏 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 2 senses

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

noun

  1. three fu (three periods forming the hottest periods of summer, from mid-July to mid-August, namely: 初伏 in mid-July, 中伏 (zhōngfú) in late July to early August and 末伏 in mid-August)
  2. the third fu

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

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

三伏 · san1 fu2
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 1,223
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record三伏 三伏 [san1 fu2] /the three annual periods of hot weather, namely 初伏[chu1 fu2], 中伏[zhong1 fu2] and 末伏[mo4 fu2], which run consecutively over a period from mid-July to late August/