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鐵飯碗

简铁饭碗 · 繁鐵飯碗

Mandarin · pinyin tiě fàn wǎn

secure employment (lit. iron rice bowl)

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Characters in this entry

鐵: Look up this written character
飯: fàn · cooked rice; food; meal
碗: wǎn · bowl, small dish
铁: tiě · iron; strong, solid, firm
饭: fàn · cooked rice; food, meal

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

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Mandarin tones

3–4–3 · tie3 fan4 wan3

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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.

鐵飯碗 · find source passages ↗ · 铁饭碗 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 2 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

tit3 faan6 wun2

Cantonese word readings for 鐵飯碗. 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.

noun

(literally) iron rice bowl
(figurative) secure job; job for life; job security

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

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