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乾兒

简干儿 · 繁乾兒

Mandarin · pinyin gān ér#

adopted son (traditional adoption, i.e. without legal ramifications)

Mandarin · pinyin gān r#

dried food

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Characters in this entry

乾: qián · gān · dry; warming principle of the sun, penetrating and fertilizing, heavenly generative principle (male); trigram ☰; hexagram ䷀
兒: ér · son, child, oneself; final part
干: gàn · oppose, offend; invade; dried
儿: ér · son, child; Kangxi radical 10

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

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Mandarin tones

1–2 · gan1 er2

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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.

noun · Etymology 1

godson; (nominally) adopted son

noun · Etymology 2

(Mandarin) erhua form of 乾／干 (gān, “dried food”)
(Mandarin, dated) female servant (usually used as a title after the surname of her husband)

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

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