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三更半夜

Mandarin · pinyin sān gēng bàn yè

(idiom) in the depth of the night; very late at night

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Characters in this entry

三: sān · three
更: gèng · more, still further, much more; to change, alter
半: bàn · half
夜: yè · night, dark; in night; by night

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

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Mandarin tones

1–1–4–4 · san1 geng1 ban4 ye4

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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

saam1 gaang1 bun3 je6

Cantonese word readings for 三更半夜. 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) in the middle of the night; late at night

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

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