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三七二十一

sān qī èr shí yīdictionary entry
DEFINITION CC-CEDICT
three sevens are twenty-one (idiom) / the facts of the matter / the actual situation
Sources & editorial notes

Reference definitions: CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source release 2026-10-27T01:55:52Z. Imported 2026-10-27. Definition wording and meaning order are retained. Recognized pronunciation references are displayed with tone marks; the original source record is available below.

Source record: cd-0d4fe17595e22646. Source SHA-256: bbc4b27f26bee1a262f4d7939667a040c7857c7fc0200a2fa7a86d3352a09eae.

Original source entry:

三七二十一 三七二十一 [san1 qi1 er4 shi2 yi1] /three sevens are twenty-one (idiom)/the facts of the matter/the actual situation/

Reference definitions and teaching material have separate provenance.

Reference information

The definitions above are from CC-CEDICT. Examples and usage notes are available on selected entries.

Character information

View the individual characters. Their meanings do not necessarily explain the meaning of the whole word.

  • 三
    sān

    three / 3

    Sān

    surname San

  • 七
    qī

    seven / 7

  • 二
    èr

    two / 2 / (Beijing dialect) stupid

  • 十
    shí

    ten / 10

  • 一
    yī

    one / single / a (article) / as soon as / entire / whole / all / throughout / "one" radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 1) / also pr. [yāo] for greater clarity when spelling out numbers digit by digit

Reference definitions from CC-CEDICT.