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簡而言之

简简而言之 · 繁簡而言之

Mandarin · pinyin jiǎn ér yán zhī

in a nutshell
to put it briefly

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Characters in this entry

簡: Look up this written character
而: ér · and; and then; and yet; but; Kangxi radical 126
言: yán · words, speech; speak, say; Kangxi radical 149
之: zhī · marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; go to
简: jiǎn · simple, terse, succinct, a letter

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

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Mandarin tones

3–2–2–1 · jian3 er2 yan2 zhi1

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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.

簡而言之 · find source passages ↗ · 简而言之 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

gaan2 ji4 jin4 zi1

Cantonese word readings for 簡而言之. 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.

adv

in brief; in short; to put it in a nutshell; basically

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

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