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大半夜

Mandarin · pinyin dà bàn yè

the middle of the night

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Characters in this entry

大: dà · big, great, vast, large, high
半: bàn · half
夜: yè · night, dark; in night; by night

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

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Mandarin tones

4–4–4 · da4 ban4 ye4

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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

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

noun

late at night; deep of the night; the middle of the night
most the night

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

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