年下

Mandarin · pinyin nián xià#

Meanings · nián xià

  1. (slang) the younger person in a romantic relationship; a younger partner
Mandarin · pinyin nián xia#

Meanings · nián xia

  1. (coll.) the period around the end of the lunar year; the run-up to and days surrounding Spring Festival
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Characters in this entry

年
nián · year; new-years; person's age
下
xià · under, underneath, below; down; inferior; bring down
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

2–4 · nian2 xia4

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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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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

noun · Etymology 1

  1. (colloquial) period around the Chinese New Year

noun · Etymology 2

  1. (ACG) younger person (in yaoi)

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

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

年下 · nian2 xia4 · nian2 xia5
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source lines 37,954, 37,955
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source records年下 年下 [nian2 xia4] /(slang) the younger person in a romantic relationship; a younger partner/年下 年下 [nian2 xia5] /(coll.) the period around the end of the lunar year; the run-up to and days surrounding Spring Festival/