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楚

Mandarin · pinyin chǔ#

distinct
clear
orderly
pain
suffering
deciduous bush used in Chinese medicine (genus Vitex)
punishment cane (old)

Mandarin · pinyin Chǔ#

surname Chu
abbr. for Hubei 湖北省 Hú běi Shěng and Hunan 湖南省 Hú nán Shěng provinces together
Chinese kingdom during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods (722–221 BC)

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Characters in this entry

楚: chǔ · name of feudal state; clear

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

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Mandarin tones

3 · chu3

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1character link18same-tone records

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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

co2

Cantonese word readings for 楚. 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.

character

(obsolete) Vitex; Chinese chaste tree (Vitex negundo)
(obsolete) thick growth of weeds or trees
(historical) punishment cane
(historical) to beat with a punishment cane
painful; suffering
neat; clear; orderly; arranged
bright; gorgeous
(obsolete) vulgar; unrefined
(～國) (historical) Chu (an ancient Chinese viscounty and kingdom along the Yangtze River during the Zhou dynasty)
modern-day Hubei and Hunan (where the state of Chu was located)
(specifically) Hubei
a surname

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

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