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老奶奶

Mandarin · pinyin lǎo nǎi nai

(coll.) father's father's mother
paternal great-grandmother
respectful form of address for an old woman

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Characters in this entry

老: lǎo · old, aged; experienced; Kangxi radical 125
奶: nǎi · milk; woman's breasts; nurse

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

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Mandarin tones

3–3–5 · lao3 nai3 nai5

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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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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

noun

paternal great-grandmother
(honorific) granny (usually used by children in addressing an old woman)

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

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