DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT
弄巧成拙
Mandarin · pinyin nòng qiǎo chéng zhuō
Meanings
- to overreach oneself
- to try to be clever and end up with egg on one's face
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Mandarin tones
4–3–2–1 · nong4 qiao3 cheng2 zhuo1
Compare attested words with these syllables ↗Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.
Connected dictionary
4character links
Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading
lung6 haau2 sing4 zyut3
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) to bungle an ingenious scheme
Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack