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令人髮指

简令人发指 · 繁令人髮指

Mandarin · pinyin lìng rén fà zhǐ

(idiom) to make one feel a sense of revulsion; abhorrent; heinous; deeply disturbing

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Characters in this entry

令: lìng · command, order; 'commandant', magistrate; allow, cause
人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
髮: fà · fǎ · hair
指: zhǐ · finger, toe; point, indicate
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

4–2–4–3 · ling4 ren2 fa4 zhi3

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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.

令人髮指 · find source passages ↗ · 令人发指 · find source passages ↗

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

ling6 jan4 faat3 zi2

Cantonese word readings for 令人髮指. 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

(figurative) to raise someone's hackles; to arouse one's anger; highly offensive; objectionable
(figurative, rare) frightening; scary; hair-raising

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

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