zimai字脈
LookupMandarin · 繁體 · English
Mandarin–English · CC-CEDICTSources ↗
DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

德薄能鮮

简 德薄能鲜 · 繁 德薄能鮮
Mandarin · pinyin dé bó néng xiǎn

Meanings

  1. little virtue and meager abilities (idiom); I'm a humble person and not much use at anything (Song writer Ouyang Xiu 歐陽修 Ōu yáng Xiū)
Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

德
dé · ethics, morality, virtue
薄
báo · bó · thin, slight, weak; poor, stingy
能
néng · to be able; can, permitted to; ability
鮮
Look up this written character
鲜
xiān · fresh; delicious; attractive
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Entries containing 德薄能鮮 ↗Words written with 德 ↗Words written with 薄 ↗Words written with 能 ↗Words written with 鮮 ↗Words written with 鲜 ↗

Mandarin tones

2–2–2–3 · de2 bo2 neng2 xian3

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

4character links1source reference
Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗
Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.
Compare dictionary sources 1 Cantonese reading

dak1 bok6 nang4 sin2

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

德薄能鮮 · de2 bo2 neng2 xian3
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 40,767
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record德薄能鮮 德薄能鲜 [de2 bo2 neng2 xian3] /little virtue and meager abilities (idiom); I'm a humble person and not much use at anything (Song writer Ouyang Xiu 歐陽修|欧阳修[Ou1 yang2 Xiu1])/