DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

外強中乾

简外强中干 · 繁外強中乾

Mandarin · pinyin wài qiáng zhōng gān

Characters in this entry

外: wài · out, outside, external; foreign
強: qiáng · strong, powerful, energetic
中: zhōng · central; center, middle; in the midst of; hit (target); attain
乾: qián · gān · dry; warming principle of the sun, penetrating and fertilizing, heavenly generative principle (male); trigram ☰; hexagram ䷀
强: qiáng · strong, powerful, energetic
干: gàn · oppose, offend; invade; dried

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

4–2–1–1 · wai4 qiang2 zhong1 gan1

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

6character links

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

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

ngoi6 koeng4 zung1 gon1

Cantonese word readings for 外強中乾. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

ngoi6 koeng4 zung1 gon1

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 appear strong on the outside but in reality be weak on the inside