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話到嘴邊留三分

简话到嘴边留三分 · 繁話到嘴邊留三分

Mandarin · pinyin huà dào zuǐ biān liú sān fēn

A still tongue makes a wise head. (idiom)

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Characters in this entry

話: huà · speech, talk, language; dialect
到: dào · go to, arrive, been to
嘴: zuǐ · mouth, lips
邊: Look up this written character
留: liú · stop, halt; stay, detain, keep
三: sān · three
分: fēn · divide; small unit of time etc.
话: huà · speech, talk, language; dialect
边: biān · edge, margin, side, border

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

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Mandarin tones

4–4–3–1–2–1–1 · hua4 dao4 zui3 bian1 liu2 san1 fen1

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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.

話到嘴邊留三分 · find source passages ↗ · 话到嘴边留三分 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

waa6 dou3 zeoi2 bin1 lau4 saam1 fan1

Cantonese word readings for 話到嘴邊留三分. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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