Other than 秘密，are there two-syllable words in Chinese where each syllable is a different character with the same pronunciation?

Question

秘密 is a curious word because both characters are pronounced mì yet they are different from each other. Given that there are so many homophonous characters in Chinese, I'm curious if there's any other combinations of them into words, and if not why did 秘密 become the exception?

I don't think I've learned that one yet, but it is another example yes :) — , Feb 25 '21 at 16:44
Recently I encountered 全权 in a book I'm reading. A lot of names are like this, e.g. I have a friend 岳悦. — Becky 李蓓, Feb 25 '21 at 18:49
It is homophonous because of the 必 component, which makes certain characters sound like “bi” and certain characters sound like “mi”. — Soroush, Feb 26 '21 at 11:26
The word 事實 (the fact) and 實事求事 (seeking truth from facts) 的"實事" . — r13, Jun 15 '22 at 15:24
@r13 these aren't examples of what the OP asked for, because 事 and 實 have different tones. See also the discussion under my answer. — goPlayerJuggler, Jan 24 '23 at 12:42
I wonder if 十时 = "10 o'clock" counts as one or two words (usually it's 十点). — Becky 李蓓, Dec 08 '23 at 22:48

goPlayerJuggler · Accepted Answer · 2023-11-30T13:30:57.130

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I’ve come across words like this a couple of times.
逝世 shìshì /to pass away/to die/
世事 shìshì /affairs of life/things of the world/
致志* zhìzhì /concentrate one’s energies on/

Alliteration (双声) seems to be quite common in Putonghua, and this is an extreme form of alliteration.

It’s interesting how all these examples use the fourth tone.

There are more words like this but they tend to be less commonly used or literary words (书面语). Eg: 幽忧* yōuyōu /distressed/laden with grief/
In this answer I’ve added a (*) to such words.

Edit: Mou某 gave two other good examples:

屈曲 qūqū /crooked/;
实时 shíshí /(in) real time/instantaneous/.

And these aren’t fourth tone, which is nice.

Edit 2: 全权 quánquán /full powers/total authority/plenipotentiary powers/
(from Becky 李蓓 ’s comment)

Edit 3:

意义 yìyì /sense/meaning/significance/importance/;
意译 yìyì /meaning (of foreign expression)/translation of the meaning (as opposed to literal translation 直譯|直译)/paraphrase/free translation/;
异议 yìyì /objection/dissent/
(from Olle Linge’s comment)

Edit 4: Not a two-character word, but a chengyu that starts with two homonyms: 屋乌推爱* wūwūtuīài - it’s a variant of the much more well-known chengyu 爱屋及乌 àiwūjíwū /lit. love the house and its crow (idiom); involvement with sb and everyone connected/Love me, love my dog./
Both versions feature the homonyms 屋 / 乌. It would be interesting to focus on other similar chengyu - perhaps this a topic for a separate question here later on. (2022-06-15)

Edit 5:

陆路 lùlù /land route/to go by surface transport/
行刑 xíngxíng /to carry out a (death) sentence/execution/.
(2022-07-27, more examples contributed by Becky 李蓓)

Edit 6:

授受 shòushòu /to give and accept/
股骨 gǔgǔ /femur/
翻番 fānfān /to double/to increase by a certain number of times/

Note that gǔgǔ is interesting because the two characters are pronounced differently, despite having the same pinyin, due to the "sandhi rule" for consecutive third tones.

(2023-01-24, more examples contributed by Becky 李蓓)

Edit 7:

各个 [ge4 ge4] /every/various/separately, one by one/
(2023-06-14)

Edit 8:

订定 [ding4 ding4] = /to set/to designate/to stipulate/to provide/to draw up/to formulate (rules etc)/stipulation/

(2023-11-30, contributed by Becky 李蓓)

edited Nov 30 '23 at 13:30

answered Feb 25 '21 at 16:25

goPlayerJuggler

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時事、時勢、實事、事實、是事、石室。 – joehua Feb 26 '21 at 03:47
@joehua apart from 是事, none of these are what the OP was asking about, because they all have two different tones. As for 是事, I can't see it in my dictionaries – goPlayerJuggler Feb 26 '21 at 10:56
I don't see the word tone in OP's question though. – joehua Feb 26 '21 at 11:42
@joehua,you have a point. Still, for me the OP gave mì, which specifies the tone, so I decided to take the restrictive definition of homophone. So here for me the requirement is that both parts have the same tone. – goPlayerJuggler Feb 26 '21 at 13:59
In that case, choices are quite limited. – joehua Feb 27 '21 at 08:22
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Tone is an important part of pronunciation, of course I meant the two characters ought to have the same tone. – Feb 27 '21 at 13:13
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I encountered 授受 in my studies, as part of 男女授受不亲. – Becky 李蓓 Mar 17 '21 at 00:34
There is a interesting story but I forget the name, full of "shi": 石室诗士施氏，嗜狮，誓食十狮... – Krahmal Jun 17 '22 at 06:34
@Krahmal that's a classic; it's mentioned in several places on CSE. Eg https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/50767. However it's not entirely relevant to this question, as here we have the requirement that the tone has to be the same (see the discussion above). – goPlayerJuggler Jun 17 '22 at 08:39
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I encountered 陆路 = "land route". Oh, and 行刑 = "execution". – Becky 李蓓 Jul 18 '22 at 07:49
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I encountered 股骨 = "thigh bone" (or "femur"). – Becky 李蓓 Sep 10 '22 at 07:59
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股骨 is an interesting one @Becky李蓓, because of tone rules the two third tones aren't pronounced the same. So I think a case could be made to not include it in the list. But rereading the OP's question, yes I think it does qualify. – goPlayerJuggler Sep 10 '22 at 09:39
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I encountered 翻番 = "to double / to increase by a certain number of times" – Becky 李蓓 Jan 23 '23 at 08:44
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@goPlayerJuggler There is an idiom 狗苟蝇营. – NanningYouth Jan 26 '23 at 13:57
@NanningYouth yes indeed! I'd already come across the variant 蝇营狗苟. This is a nice one. Thanks – goPlayerJuggler Jan 26 '23 at 16:24
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I encountered 订定 = "to set / to designate / to stipulate / ..." in my textbook. – Becky 李蓓 Nov 29 '23 at 10:03

Other than 秘密，are there two-syllable words in Chinese where each syllable is a different character with the same pronunciation?

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