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乘勢

简乘势 · 繁乘勢

Mandarin · pinyin chéng shì

to seize the opportunity
to strike while the iron is hot

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Characters in this entry

乘: chéng · ride, ascend; avail oneself of; numerary adjunct for vehicles
勢: Look up this written character
势: shì · power, force; tendency

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

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Mandarin tones

2–4 · cheng2 shi4

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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.

乘勢 · find source passages ↗ · 乘势 · find source passages ↗

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

sing4 sai3

Cantonese word readings for 乘勢. 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.

verb

(intransitive, literary) to seize an opportunity; to take advantage of a favorable situation
(formal) to make use of one's power

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

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