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開眼

简开眼 · 繁開眼

Mandarin · pinyin kāi yǎn

to open one's eyes
to widen one's horizons

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Characters in this entry

開: kāi · open; initiate, begin, start
眼: yǎn · eye; eyelet, hole, opening
开: kāi · open; initiate, begin, start

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

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Mandarin tones

1–3 · kai1 yan3

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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.

開眼 · find source passages ↗ · 开眼 · find source passages ↗

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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.

verb

(verb-object) to broaden one's mind; to have an eye-opening experience
(archaic) to open the (or one's) eyes

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

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