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寸金難買寸光陰

简寸金难买寸光阴 · 繁寸金難買寸光陰

Mandarin · pinyin cùn jīn nán mǎi cùn guāng yīn

An ounce of gold can't buy you an interval of time (idiom); Money can't buy you time.
Time is precious.

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Characters in this entry

寸: cùn · inch; small, tiny; Kangxi radical 41
金: jīn · gold; metals in general; money; Kangxi radical 167
難: Look up this written character
買: Look up this written character
光: guāng · light, brilliant, shine; only
陰: Look up this written character
难: nán · difficult, arduous, hard; unable
买: mǎi · buy, purchase; bribe, persuade
阴: yīn · 'female' principle; dark; secret

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

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Mandarin tones

4–1–2–3–4–1–1 · cun4 jin1 nan2 mai3 cun4 guang1 yin1

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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.

寸金難買寸光陰 · find source passages ↗ · 寸金难买寸光阴 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

cyun3 gam1 naan4 maai5 cyun3 gwong1 jam1

Cantonese word readings for 寸金難買寸光陰. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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