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DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

刻鵠類鶩

简 刻鹄类鹜 · 繁 刻鵠類鶩
Mandarin · pinyin kè hú lèi wù

Meanings

  1. to aim to carve a swan and get a semblance of a duck (idiom)
  2. to fail utterly in trying to copy something
  3. to get a reasonably good, if not perfect, result
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Characters in this entry

刻
kè · carve, engrave; quarter hour
鵠
Look up this written character
類
Look up this written character
鶩
Look up this written character
鹄
gǔ · target
类
lèi · class, group, kind, category
鹜
wù · duck
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Entries containing 刻鵠類鶩 ↗Words written with 刻 ↗Words written with 鵠 ↗Words written with 類 ↗Words written with 鶩 ↗Words written with 鹄 ↗Words written with 类 ↗Words written with 鹜 ↗

Mandarin tones

4–2–4–4 · ke4 hu2 lei4 wu4

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

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Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.
Compare dictionary sources 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

hak1 huk6 leoi6 mou6

Cantonese word readings for 刻鵠類鶩. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

hak1 huk6 leoi6 mou6

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

刻鵠類鶩 · ke4 hu2 lei4 wu4
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 14,344
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record刻鵠類鶩 刻鹄类鹜 [ke4 hu2 lei4 wu4] /to aim to carve a swan and get a semblance of a duck (idiom)/to fail utterly in trying to copy something/to get a reasonably good, if not perfect, result/