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下落不明

Mandarin · pinyin xià luò bù míng

unaccounted
unknown whereabouts

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Characters in this entry

下: xià · under, underneath, below; down; inferior; bring down
落: luò · fall, drop; net income, surplus
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
明: míng · bright, light, brilliant; clear

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

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Mandarin tones

4–4–4–2 · xia4 luo4 bu4 ming2

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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.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

haa6 lok6 bat1 ming4

Cantonese word readings for 下落不明. 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.

phrase

(idiomatic) one's whereabouts is unknown; one's present whereabouts is a mystery

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

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