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事倍功半

Mandarin · pinyin shì bèi gōng bàn

(idiom) to expend twice the effort for half the result

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Characters in this entry

事: shì · affair, matter, business; to serve; accident, incident
倍: bèi · times, fold, multiple times
功: gōng · achievement, merit, good result
半: bàn · half

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

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Mandarin tones

4–4–1–4 · shi4 bei4 gong1 ban4

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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

si6 pui5 gung1 bun3

Cantonese word readings for 事倍功半. 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) to get half the result with twice the effort

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

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