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外祖母

Mandarin · pinyin wài zǔ mǔ

mother's mother
maternal grandmother

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Characters in this entry

外: wài · out, outside, external; foreign
祖: zǔ · ancestor, forefather; grandfather
母: mǔ · mother; female elders; female

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

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Mandarin tones

4–3–3 · wai4 zu3 mu3

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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

ngoi6 zou2 mou5

Cantonese word readings for 外祖母. 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.

noun

maternal grandmother

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

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