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趁早

Mandarin · pinyin chèn zǎo

as soon as possible
at the first opportunity
the sooner the better
before it's too late

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Characters in this entry

趁: chèn · take advantage of, avail oneself
早: zǎo · early; soon; morning

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

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Mandarin tones

4–3 · chen4 zao3

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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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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

can3 zou2

Cantonese word readings for 趁早. 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.

adv

as soon as possible; at the first opportunity; before it is too late

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

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