頭腦

简 头脑 · 繁 頭腦
Mandarin · pinyin tóu nǎo

Meanings

  1. brains
  2. mind
  3. skull
  4. (fig.) gist (of a matter)
  5. leader
  6. boss
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Characters in this entry

頭
tóu · head; top; chief, first; boss
腦
Look up this written character
头
tóu · head; top; chief, first; boss
脑
nǎo · brain
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

2–3 · tou2 nao3

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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.

頭腦 · find source passages ↗ · 头脑 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 6 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

tau4 nou5

Cantonese word readings for 頭腦. 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.

noun

  1. (literary) head
  2. mind; brains; head
  3. intellect; intelligence; smarts
  4. leader; boss; head
  5. (obsolete) inside information
  6. (obsolete) reason; cause; motive; grounds

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

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