年初

Mandarin · pinyin nián chū

Meanings

  1. beginning of the year
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Characters in this entry

年
nián · year; new-years; person's age
初
chū · beginning, initial, primary
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

2–1 · nian2 chu1

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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

nin4 co1

Cantonese word readings for 年初. 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

  1. beginning of the year

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

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