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外務省

简外务省 · 繁外務省

Mandarin · pinyin wài wù shěng

foreign ministry (e.g. of Japan or Korea)

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Characters in this entry

外: wài · out, outside, external; foreign
務: Look up this written character
省: shěng · province; save, economize
务: wù · affairs, business; must, should

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

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Mandarin tones

4–4–3 · wai4 wu4 sheng3

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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.

外務省 · find source passages ↗ · 外务省 · find source passages ↗

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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.

noun

ministry of foreign affairs (of Japan or North Korea)

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

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