便衣

Mandarin · pinyin biàn yī

Meanings

  1. civilian clothes; plain clothes
  2. plainclothesman
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Characters in this entry

便
biàn · convenience, ease; expedient
衣
yī · clothes, clothing; cover, skin; Kangxi radical 145
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4–1 · bian4 yi1

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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

bin6 ji1

Cantonese word readings for 便衣. 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

  1. plain clothes; civilian clothes; civvies
  2. (abbreviation, alt-of) short for 便衣警察 (“plainclothes police officer”)

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

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