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燙手山芋

简 烫手山芋 · 繁 燙手山芋
Mandarin · pinyin tàng shǒu shān yù

Meanings

  1. (fig.) hot potato
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Characters in this entry

燙
Look up this written character
手
shǒu · hand
山
shān · mountain, hill, peak
芋
yù · taro
烫
tàng · scald, heat; wash; iron clothes
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Entries containing 燙手山芋 ↗Words written with 燙 ↗Words written with 手 ↗Words written with 山 ↗Words written with 芋 ↗Words written with 烫 ↗

Mandarin tones

4–3–1–4 · tang4 shou3 shan1 yu4

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

tong3 sau2 saan1 wu6

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) hot potato (awkward or delicate problem)

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

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