不悱不發

简 不悱不发 · 繁 不悱不發
Mandarin · pinyin bù fěi bù fā

Meanings

  1. a student should not be guided until he has made an effort to express his thoughts (idiom)
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Characters in this entry

不
bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
悱
fěi · to be desirous of speaking
發
fā · issue, dispatch, send out, emit
发
fā · issue, dispatch, send out; hair
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4–3–4–1 · bu4 fei3 bu4 fa1

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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.

不悱不發 · find source passages ↗ · 不悱不发 · find source passages ↗

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不悱不發 · bu4 fei3 bu4 fa1
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 2,514
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record不悱不發 不悱不发 [bu4 fei3 bu4 fa1] /a student should not be guided until he has made an effort to express his thoughts (idiom)/