望文生義

简 望文生义 · 繁 望文生義
Mandarin · pinyin wàng wén shēng yì

Meanings

  1. lit. view a text and interpret (idiom); to interpret word by word without understanding the meaning
  2. a far-fetched interpretation
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Characters in this entry

望
wàng · to look at, look forward; to hope, expect
文
wén · literature, culture, writing
生
shēng · life, living, lifetime; birth
義
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义
yì · right conduct, righteousness
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4–2–1–4 · wang4 wen2 sheng1 yi4

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

mong6 man4 sang1 ji6

Cantonese word readings for 望文生義. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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

mong6 man4 sang1 ji6

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

  1. (idiomatic) to interpret a text with superficial explanations; folk etymology

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

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

望文生義 · wang4 wen2 sheng1 yi4
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 55,349
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record望文生義 望文生义 [wang4 wen2 sheng1 yi4] /lit. view a text and interpret (idiom); to interpret word by word without understanding the meaning/a far-fetched interpretation/