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藥到病除

简药到病除 · 繁藥到病除

Mandarin · pinyin yào dào bìng chú

lit. the disease is cured the moment the medicine is taken (idiom)
fig. (of a medical treatment) to give instant results
(of a solution or method) highly effective

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Characters in this entry

藥: Look up this written character
到: dào · go to, arrive, been to
病: bìng · illness, sickness, disease
除: chú · eliminate, remove, except
药: yào · leaf of Dahurian angelica plant; medicine

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

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Mandarin tones

4–4–4–2 · yao4 dao4 bing4 chu2

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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.

藥到病除 · find source passages ↗ · 药到病除 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

joek6 dou3 beng6 ceoi4

Cantonese word readings for 藥到病除. 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.

phrase

(idiomatic) one's illness is cured after taking the medicine

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

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