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其貌不揚

简其貌不扬 · 繁其貌不揚

Mandarin · pinyin qí mào bù yáng

(idiom) nothing special to look at
unprepossessing

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Characters in this entry

其: qí · his, her, its, their; that
貌: mào · countenance, appearance
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
揚: Look up this written character
扬: yáng · scatter, spread; praise

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

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Mandarin tones

2–4–4–2 · qi2 mao4 bu4 yang2

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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.

其貌不揚 · find source passages ↗ · 其貌不扬 · find source passages ↗

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

kei4 maau6 bat1 joeng4

Cantonese word readings for 其貌不揚. 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) to be undistinguished or unattractive in appearance

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

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