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五更

Mandarin · pinyin wǔ gēng

fifth of the five night watch periods 03:00-05:00 (old)

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Characters in this entry

五: wǔ · five; surname
更: gèng · more, still further, much more; to change, alter

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Mandarin tones

3–1 · wu3 geng1

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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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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

ng5 gaang1

Cantonese word readings for 五更. 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.

noun

(archaic) the five watches of the night
(archaic) fifth watch (between 3:00am and 5:00am)

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

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