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笄

Mandarin · pinyin jī

15 years old
hairpin for bun

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笄: jī · a hairpin; fifteen-year-old girl

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

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Mandarin tones

1 · ji1

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1character link96same-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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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 2 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

gai1

Cantonese word readings for 笄. 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

(historical) hairpin of women, perhaps made of bamboo
(historical, of a woman) to become an adult at age 15 and start wearing a hairpin

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

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