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牛頭

简牛头 · 繁牛頭

Mandarin · pinyin niú tóu#

ox head
ox-head shaped wine vessel

Mandarin · pinyin Niú Tóu#

Ox-Head, one of the two guardians of the underworld in Chinese mythology

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Characters in this entry

牛: niú · cow, ox, bull; Kangxi radical 93; 9th lunar mansion, determinative star β Capricorni (Dabih)
頭: tóu · head; top; chief, first; boss
头: tóu · head; top; chief, first; boss

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

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Mandarin tones

2–2 · niu2 tou2

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3character links1same-tone record

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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.

牛頭 · find source passages ↗ · 牛头 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 5 senses

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

noun

oxhead
(humorous) Daoist priest
(rugby, informal) forward in a scrum
(Taiwan) leader of a class of underachievers (someone who always leads classmates in fooling around)

name

(Buddhism, Taoism, Chinese mythology, Japanese mythology) Ox-Head, one of the two guardians of hell

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

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