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老小

Mandarin · pinyin lǎo xiǎo

the old and the young
the youngest member of the family

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Characters in this entry

老: lǎo · old, aged; experienced; Kangxi radical 125
小: xiǎo · small, tiny, insignificant

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

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Mandarin tones

3–3 · lao3 xiao3

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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

the young and the old
(literary) one's entire family
(regional) wife

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

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