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光陰似箭

简光阴似箭 · 繁光陰似箭

Mandarin · pinyin guāng yīn sì jiàn

time flies like an arrow (idiom); How time flies!

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Characters in this entry

光: guāng · light, brilliant, shine; only
陰: Look up this written character
似: sì · resemble, similar to; as if, seem
箭: jiàn · arrow; type of bamboo
阴: yīn · 'female' principle; dark; secret

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

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Mandarin tones

1–1–4–4 · guang1 yin1 si4 jian4

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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.

光陰似箭 · find source passages ↗ · 光阴似箭 · find source passages ↗

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

gwong1 jam1 ci5 zin3

Cantonese word readings for 光陰似箭. 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.

proverb

Time flies like an arrow.

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

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