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人有三急

Mandarin · pinyin rén yǒu sān jí

(jocular) to need to answer the call of nature

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Characters in this entry

人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
有: yǒu · have, own, possess; exist
三: sān · three
急: jí · quick, quickly; urgent, pressing

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

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Mandarin tones

2–3–1–2 · ren2 you3 san1 ji2

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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

jan4 jau5 saam1 gap1

Cantonese word readings for 人有三急. 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 need to use the toilet; to need to urinate or defecate

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

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