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刁難

简刁难 · 繁刁難

Mandarin · pinyin diāo nàn

to be hard on sb; to deliberately make things difficult
Taiwan pr. diāonán

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Characters in this entry

刁: diāo · tricky, sly, crafty, cunning
難: Look up this written character
难: nán · difficult, arduous, hard; unable

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

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Mandarin tones

1–4 · diao1 nan4

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

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.

刁難 · find source passages ↗ · 刁难 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

diu1 naan4

Cantonese word readings for 刁難. 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.

verb

to deliberately make things difficult for; to be hard on someone

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

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