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花甲之年

Mandarin · pinyin huā jiǎ zhī nián

(idiom) 60 years old

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Characters in this entry

花: huā · flower; blossoms
甲: jiǎ · armor, shell; fingernails; 1st heavenly stem
之: zhī · marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; go to
年: nián · year; new-years; person's age

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

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Mandarin tones

1–3–1–2 · hua1 jia3 zhi1 nian2

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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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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

phrase

(idiomatic) sixty years old

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

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