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旗鼓相當

简旗鼓相当 · 繁旗鼓相當

Mandarin · pinyin qí gǔ xiāng dāng

lit. two armies have equivalent banners and drums (idiom); fig. evenly matched
roughly comparable (opponents)

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Characters in this entry

旗: qí · banner, flag, streamer
鼓: gǔ · drum; beat, top, strike; Kangxi radical 207
相: xiāng · mutual, reciprocal, each other
當: dāng · bear, accept, undertake; just
当: dāng · bear, accept, undertake; just

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

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Mandarin tones

2–3–1–1 · qi2 gu3 xiang1 dang1

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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.

旗鼓相當 · find source passages ↗ · 旗鼓相当 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

kei4 gu2 soeng1 dong1

Cantonese word readings for 旗鼓相當. 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 well-matched; to match in capabilities

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

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