DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

冥思苦索

Mandarin · pinyin míng sī kǔ suǒ

Characters in this entry

冥: míng · dark, gloomy, night; deep
思: sī · think, consider, ponder; final particle
苦: kǔ · bitter; hardship, suffering
索: suǒ · large rope, cable; rules, laws; to demand, to exact; to search, inquire; isolated

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

2–1–3–3 · ming2 si1 ku3 suo3

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

4character links1source reference

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

ming5 si1 fu2 sok3

Cantonese word readings for 冥思苦索. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

ming5 si1 fu2 sok3

Pleco · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Word reading; meanings not aligned.

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

(idiomatic) to think long and hard; to rack one's brains; to cudgel one's brains