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男女老少

Mandarin · pinyin nán nǚ lǎo shào

men, women, young and old; all kinds of people; people of all ages

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Characters in this entry

男: nán · male, man; son; baron; surname
女: nǚ · woman, girl; feminine; Kangxi radical 38; 10th lunar mansion, determinative star ε Aquarii (Albali)
老: lǎo · old, aged; experienced; Kangxi radical 125
少: shǎo · few, less, inadequate

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

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Mandarin tones

2–3–3–4 · nan2 nu:3 lao3 shao4

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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.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

naam4 neoi5 lou5 siu3

Cantonese word readings for 男女老少. 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) young and old of both sexes; everyone in society

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

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