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孤掌難鳴

简孤掌难鸣 · 繁孤掌難鳴

Mandarin · pinyin gū zhǎng nán míng

It's hard to clap with only one hand.
It takes two to tango
It's difficult to achieve anything without support.

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Characters in this entry

孤: gū · orphan, fatherless; solitary
掌: zhǎng · palm of hand, sole of foot, paw
難: Look up this written character
鳴: Look up this written character
难: nán · difficult, arduous, hard; unable
鸣: míng · cry of bird or animal; make sound

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

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Mandarin tones

1–3–2–2 · gu1 zhang3 nan2 ming2

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

gu1 zoeng2 naan4 ming4

Cantonese word readings for 孤掌難鳴. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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

gu1 zoeng2 naan4 ming4

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

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

phrase

(idiomatic) It is hard to succeed without support.

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

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack