小白鼠

Mandarin · pinyin xiǎo bái shǔ

Meanings

  1. white mouse
  2. lab mouse; lab rat
  3. (fig.) human guinea pig
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Characters in this entry

小
xiǎo · small, tiny, insignificant
白
bái · white; pure, unblemished; bright
鼠
shǔ · rat, mouse; Kangxi radical 208
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

3–2–3 · xiao3 bai2 shu3

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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

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

noun

  1. white lab rat; white lab mouse
  2. (figurative) lab rat; guinea pig (subject of an experiment or test)

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

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