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摩肩接踵

Mandarin · pinyin mó jiān jiē zhǒng

lit. rubbing shoulders and following in each other's footsteps
a thronging crowd

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Characters in this entry

摩: mó · rub, scour, grind; friction
肩: jiān · shoulders; to shoulder; bear
接: jiē · receive; continue; catch; connect
踵: zhǒng · heel; follow; visit, call on

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

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Mandarin tones

2–1–1–3 · mo2 jian1 jie1 zhong3

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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 · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

mo1 gin1 zip3 zung2

Cantonese word readings for 摩肩接踵. 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.

phrase

(idiomatic) to be crowded; to be filled with people.

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

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