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難道

简难道 · 繁難道

Mandarin · pinyin nán dào

don't tell me ...
could it be that...?

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Characters in this entry

難: Look up this written character
道: dào · path, road, street; method, way
难: nán · difficult, arduous, hard; unable

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

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Mandarin tones

2–4 · nan2 dao4

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

難道 · find source passages ↗ · 难道 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

naan4 dou6

Cantonese word readings for 難道. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

adv

(rhetorical question) Indicates a rhetorical question: surely it doesn't mean that...; is it possible that...

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

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