DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT
三個和尚沒水喝
简 三个和尚没水喝 · 繁 三個和尚沒水喝Mandarin · pinyin sān gè hé shang méi shuǐ hē
Meanings
- lit. three monks have no water to drink (idiom)
- fig. everybody's business is nobody's business
- (If there is one monk, he will fetch water for himself. If there are two, they will fetch water together. But if there are three or more, none will take it upon himself to fetch water.)
Characters in this entry
- 三
- sān · three
- 個
- gè · numerary adjunct, piece; single
- 和
- hé · harmony, peace; peaceful, calm
- 尚
- shàng · still, yet; even; fairly, rather
- 沒
- méi · not, have not, none; to drown, sink
- 水
- shuǐ · water, liquid, lotion, juice
- 喝
- hē · drink; shout, call out
- 个
- gè · numerary adjunct, piece; single
- 没
- méi · not, have not, none; drown, sink
Explore the spelling
Mandarin tones
1–4–2–5–2–3–1 · san1 ge4 he2 shang5 mei2 shui3 he1
Compare attested words with these syllables ↗Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.
Connected dictionary
9character links
Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.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.
三個和尚沒水喝 · find source passages ↗ · 三个和尚没水喝 · find source passages ↗