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事半功倍

Mandarin · pinyin shì bàn gōng bèi

(idiom) to achieve twice the result with half the effort

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Characters in this entry

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

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

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Mandarin tones

4–4–1–4 · shi4 ban4 gong1 bei4

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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.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

si6 bun3 gung1 pui5

Cantonese word readings for 事半功倍. 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 yield twice the result with half the effort

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

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