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首要

Mandarin · pinyin shǒu yào

the most important
of chief importance

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Characters in this entry

首: shǒu · head; first; leader, chief; a poem; Kangxi radical 185
要: yào · necessary, essential; necessity

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

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Mandarin tones

3–4 · shou3 yao4

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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

sau2 jiu3

Cantonese word readings for 首要. 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.

adj

(attributive) of utmost importance

noun

head (person in charge); leader

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

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