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要不然

Mandarin · pinyin yào bù rán

otherwise
or else
or

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Characters in this entry

要: yào · necessary, essential; necessity
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
然: rán · yes, certainly; pledge, promise

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

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Mandarin tones

4–4–2 · yao4 bu4 ran2

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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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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

jiu3 bat1 jin4

Cantonese word readings for 要不然. 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.

conj

otherwise; or else

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

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