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咋舌

Mandarin · pinyin zé shé

(literary) to be speechless

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Characters in this entry

咋: zǎ · question-forming particle, why? how? what?; to bite; loud
舌: shé · tongue; clapper of bell; Kangxi radical 135

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

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Mandarin tones

2–2 · ze2 she2

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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.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

zaa3 sit3

Cantonese word readings for 咋舌. 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

(literary) to be left speechless (with fear, astonishment, etc.)

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

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