多半

Mandarin · pinyin duō bàn

Meanings

  1. most
  2. mostly
  3. most likely
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Characters in this entry

多
duō · much, many; more than, over
半
bàn · half
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

1–4 · duo1 ban4

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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 · 2 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

do1 bun3

Cantonese word readings for 多半. 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.

adv

  1. probably; most likely

noun

  1. more than half; the greater part

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

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack