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妖

Mandarin · pinyin yāo

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妖: yāo · strange, weird, supernatural

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

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Mandarin tones

1 · yao1

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1character link19same-tone records

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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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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

jiu1 · jiu2

Cantonese word readings for 妖. 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.

character

abnormal or bizarre thing or phenomenon
(abbreviation, alt-of) short for 妖怪 (yāoguài, “monster; demon; apparition”)
evil and fraudulent
(literary) gorgeous; beautiful; charming
(chiefly of women) bizarrely dressed or behaving frivolously
(Cantonese, vulgar, minced oath) yuck! (used in place of its near-homophone 屌 (diu2))

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

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