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猴年馬月

简猴年马月 · 繁猴年馬月

Mandarin · pinyin hóu nián mǎ yuè

long time off
time that will never come

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Characters in this entry

猴: hóu · monkey, ape; monkey-like
年: nián · year; new-years; person's age
馬: Look up this written character
月: yuè · moon; month; Kangxi radical 74
马: mǎ · horse; surname; Kangxi radical 187

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

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Mandarin tones

2–2–3–4 · hou2 nian2 ma3 yue4

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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.

猴年馬月 · find source passages ↗ · 猴年马月 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

hau4 nin4 maa5 jyut6

Cantonese word readings for 猴年馬月. 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) an unknown and long time; donkey's years; God knows when

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

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