垂暮之年

Mandarin · pinyin chuí mù zhī nián

Meanings

  1. old age
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Characters in this entry

垂
chuí · let down; suspend, hand; down
暮
mù · evening, dusk, sunset; ending
之
zhī · marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; go to
年
nián · year; new-years; person's age
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

2–4–1–2 · chui2 mu4 zhi1 nian2

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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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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

seoi4 mou6 zi1 nin4

Cantonese word readings for 垂暮之年. 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) remaining years (of a person's life); old age; twilight years

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

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