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不過

简不过 · 繁不過

Mandarin · pinyin bù guò

only
merely
no more than
but
however
anyway (to get back to a previous topic)
cannot be more (after adjectival)

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Characters in this entry

不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
過: guò · pass, pass through, go across
过: guò · pass, pass through, go across

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

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Mandarin tones

4–4 · bu4 guo4

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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.

不過 · find source passages ↗ · 不过 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 4 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

bat1 gwo3

Cantonese word readings for 不過. 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.

adv

only; merely
extremely

conj

however; but

verb

(literary) to not exceed

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

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