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初

Mandarin · pinyin chū

(bound form) at first; initially
(bound form) first; early
(bound form) (in lunar calendar dates, before numerals 1–10) days 1 to 10 of a month, as in 初三 chū sān "the third"

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Characters in this entry

初: chū · beginning, initial, primary

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

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Mandarin tones

1 · chu1

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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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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

co1

Cantonese word readings for 初. 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.

character

initial; inceptive
first
prefix of dates from 1ˢᵗ to 10ᵗʰ in the Chinese calendar
original
elementary; basic
beginning; start
just

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

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