單人匹馬

简 单人匹马 · 繁 單人匹馬
Mandarin · pinyin dān rén pǐ mǎ

Meanings

  1. single-handedly (idiom)
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Characters in this entry

單
Look up this written character
人
rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
匹
pǐ · bolt of cloth; counter for horses
馬
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单
dān · single, individual, only; lone
马
mǎ · horse; surname; Kangxi radical 187
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

1–2–3–3 · dan1 ren2 pi3 ma3

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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.

單人匹馬 · find source passages ↗ · 单人匹马 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

daan1 jan4 pat1 maa5

Cantonese word readings for 單人匹馬. 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

  1. (idiomatic) single-handed; all by oneself

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

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