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探花

Mandarin · pinyin tàn huā

candidate who came third in the Hanlin examination (cf. 狀元 zhuàng yuán)
(slang) to secretly film sex with a prostitute to share on the Internet

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Characters in this entry

探: tàn · find, locate; search, grope for
花: huā · flower; blossoms

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Mandarin tones

4–1 · tan4 hua1

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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

(historical) tanhua; person who came third in the palace examination of the imperial examination system, below zhuangyuan and bangyan
(Philippine Hokkien, dice games) a dice roll of either, three of a kind (with two sets of three dice of the same face) or straight (with all die faces in sequence) in a Mooncake Festival Dice Game

verb

(slang) to secretly film sex with a prostitute to share on the Internet

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

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