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皂

Mandarin · pinyin zào

soap
black

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皂: zào · soap; black; menial servant

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

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Mandarin tones

4 · zao4

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1character link27same-tone records

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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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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

zou6

Cantonese word readings for 皂. 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

black
(abbreviation, alt-of) short for 皂斗 (“acorn”)
(abbreviation, alt-of) short for 皂莢／皂荚 (zàojiá, “Chinese honey locust (Gleditsia sinensis)”)
soap
(obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) yamen runner

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

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