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工夫

Mandarin · pinyin gōng fū#

(old) laborer

Mandarin · pinyin gōng fu#

period of time (may be months, or mere seconds)
spare time
skill
labor
effort

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Characters in this entry

工: gōng · labor, work; worker, laborer
夫: fū · man, male adult, husband; those

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

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Mandarin tones

1–1 · gong1 fu1

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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

gung1 fu1

Cantonese word readings for 工夫. 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.

noun

time and effort taken to perform a task; work
skills attained after taking the time and effort; skilfulness; expertise; workmanship
work; labour; job; task
time (for doing something); free time
(colloquial) time (when something happened); moment; period
(alt-of, alternative) alternative form of 功夫 (gōngfu, “martial arts; kung fu”)

adj

(Southern Min) skilful; delicate; refined
(Taiwanese Hokkien, Taiwanese Hakka) thoughtful; thorough
(Taiwanese Hokkien) too polite; too courteous

noun

(literary) temporary worker; casual labourer

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

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