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老百姓

Mandarin · pinyin lǎo bǎi xìng

ordinary people
the "person in the street"
Classifier: 個 gè

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Characters in this entry

老: lǎo · old, aged; experienced; Kangxi radical 125
百: bǎi · one hundred; numerous, many
姓: xìng · one's family name; clan, people

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

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Mandarin tones

3–3–4 · lao3 bai3 xing4

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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

lou5 baak3 sing3

Cantonese word readings for 老百姓. 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.

noun

ordinary citizen; the common people; the masses (Classifier: 個／个 m c mn)
(dialectal) farmer; peasant

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

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