LookupMandarin · 繁體 · English

ChineseCharactersMeanings inMandarin–English · CC-CEDICTSources ↗

DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

井底之蛙

Mandarin · pinyin jǐng dǐ zhī wā

(lit.) a frog at the bottom of a well (idiom)
(fig.) a person of limited outlook and experience

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

井: jǐng · well, mine shaft, pit; surname; 22nd lunar mansion, determinative star μ Geminorum (Tejat); hexagram ䷯
底: dǐ · bottom, underneath, underside
之: zhī · marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; go to
蛙: wā · frog

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

3–3–1–1 · jing3 di3 zhi1 wa1

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

4character links

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

zeng2 dai2 zi1 waa1

Cantonese word readings for 井底之蛙. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

(idiomatic) a “frog in a well”, a person of very limited outlook and experience

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

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