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不堪入耳

Mandarin · pinyin bù kān rù ěr

(idiom) (of speech, music etc) vulgar; offensive to the ear

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Characters in this entry

不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
堪: kān · adequately capable of, worthy of
入: rù · enter, come in(to), join
耳: ěr · ear; merely, only; handle; Kangxi radical 128

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

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Mandarin tones

4–1–4–3 · bu4 kan1 ru4 er3

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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

bat1 ham1 jap6 ji5

Cantonese word readings for 不堪入耳. 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) intolerable to the ear (e.g. of coarse language)

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

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