之間

简 之间 · 繁 之間
Mandarin · pinyin zhī jiān

Meanings

  1. (after a noun) between; among; amid
  2. (used after certain bisyllabic words to form expressions indicating a short period of time, e.g. 彈指之間 tán zhǐ zhī jiān)
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Characters in this entry

之
zhī · marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; go to
間
Look up this written character
间
jiān · midpoint, space; place, locality
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

1–1 · zhi1 jian1

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

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之間 · find source passages ↗ · 之间 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

zi1 gaan1

Cantonese word readings for 之間. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

postp

  1. between

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

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

之間 · zhi1 jian1
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 4,149
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record之間 之间 [zhi1 jian1] /(after a noun) between; among; amid/(used after certain bisyllabic words to form expressions indicating a short period of time, e.g. 彈指之間|弹指之间[tan2 zhi3 zhi1 jian1])/