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早出晚歸

简早出晚归 · 繁早出晚歸

Mandarin · pinyin zǎo chū wǎn guī

to leave early and return late (idiom)

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Characters in this entry

早: zǎo · early; soon; morning
出: chū · go out, send out; stand; produce
晚: wǎn · night, evening; late
歸: Look up this written character
归: guī · return; return to, revert to

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

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Mandarin tones

3–1–3–1 · zao3 chu1 wan3 gui1

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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.

早出晚歸 · find source passages ↗ · 早出晚归 · find source passages ↗

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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 leave early in the morning and return late at night

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

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