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元月

Mandarin · pinyin Yuán yuè

first month (of either lunar or Western calendars)

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Characters in this entry

元: yuán · first; dollar; origin; head
月: yuè · moon; month; Kangxi radical 74

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

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Mandarin tones

2–4 · Yuan2 yue4

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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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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

name

(literary) synonym of 一月 (yīyuè, “January”)
(archaic) The first of the twelve months of the Chinese lunar year.

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

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