zāi

  1. zāi particle exclamatory particle
    Domain: Literary Chinese 文言文
    Notes: 哉 is used as a final exclamatory particle in Literary Chinese expressing surprise, sadness, or confirmation (Guoyu '哉' particle 2-4; Kroll 2015 '哉' 1; NCCED '哉' 1; Pulleyblank 1995, p. 146; Unihan '哉')
  2. zāi particle interrogative particle
    Domain: Literary Chinese 文言文
    Notes: 哉 may be added to the end of a question. For example, 是誠何心哉?'What really was my mind in the matter?' (Mengzi: 1.7/4/17, translation by Legge; Guoyu '哉' particle 1; NCCED '哉' 2; Pulleyblank 1995, p. 146; Unihan '哉')
  3. zāi verb to start
    Domain: Literary Chinese 文言文
    Notes: In the sense of 开始 (Guoyu '哉' v 1)

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Truncated for common words