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傷腦筋

简伤脑筋 · 繁傷腦筋

Mandarin · pinyin shāng nǎo jīn

to be a real headache
to find sth a real headache
to beat one's brains

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Characters in this entry

傷: shāng · wound, injury; fall ill from
腦: Look up this written character
筋: jīn · muscles; tendons
伤: shāng · wound, injury; fall ill from
脑: nǎo · brain

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

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Mandarin tones

1–3–1 · shang1 nao3 jin1

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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.

傷腦筋 · find source passages ↗ · 伤脑筋 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

soeng1 nou5 gan1

Cantonese word readings for 傷腦筋. 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.

adj

(informal) troublesome; pesky; annoying

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

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