生龍活虎

简 生龙活虎 · 繁 生龍活虎
Mandarin · pinyin shēng lóng huó hǔ

Meanings

  1. lit. lively dragon and animated tiger (idiom)
  2. fig. vigorous and lively
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Characters in this entry

生
shēng · life, living, lifetime; birth
龍
Look up this written character
活
huó · live, exist, survive; lively
虎
hǔ · tiger; brave, fierce; surname
龙
lóng · dragon; symbolic of emperor
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

1–2–2–3 · sheng1 long2 huo2 hu3

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 2 Cantonese readings

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

saang1 lung4 wut6 fu2

Cantonese word readings for 生龍活虎. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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

sang1 lung4 wut6 fu2

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) energetic; spirited; lively

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

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

生龍活虎 · sheng1 long2 huo2 hu3
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 74,647
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record生龍活虎 生龙活虎 [sheng1 long2 huo2 hu3] /lit. lively dragon and animated tiger (idiom)/fig. vigorous and lively/