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孤家寡人

Mandarin · pinyin gū jiā guǎ rén

one who is cut off from others (idiom)
one who has chosen to follow a solitary path
(can also be an indirect way of referring to an unmarried person)

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Characters in this entry

孤: gū · orphan, fatherless; solitary
家: jiā · house, home, residence; family
寡: guǎ · widowed; alone, friendless
人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else

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

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Mandarin tones

1–1–3–2 · gu1 jia1 gua3 ren2

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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

gu1 gaa1 gwaa2 jan4

Cantonese word readings for 孤家寡人. 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.

phrase

(humble, archaic) I; we; "your unworthy king" (first-person pronoun used by monarchs, similar to the royal we)
(idiomatic) loner; one without followers

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

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