DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

玩物喪志

简玩物丧志 · 繁玩物喪志

Mandarin · pinyin wán wù sàng zhì

lit. trifling destroys the will (idiom); infatuation with fine details prevents one making progress
excessive attention to trivia saps the will

Characters in this entry

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

2–4–4–4 · wan2 wu4 sang4 zhi4

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

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Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

wun6 mat6 song3 zi3

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

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

(idiomatic) to indulge in what one likes and lose one's sense of purpose; infatuation saps the will