行之有效

Mandarin · pinyin xíng zhī yǒu xiào

Meanings

  1. to be effective (idiom)
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Characters in this entry

行
xíng · go; walk; move, travel; circulate; Kangxi radical 144
之
zhī · marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; go to
有
yǒu · have, own, possess; exist
效
xiào · result, effect; effectiveness
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

2–1–3–4 · xing2 zhi1 you3 xiao4

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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.

phrase

  1. (idiomatic) effective

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

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