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冥思苦索

Mandarin · pinyin míng sī kǔ suǒ

see 苦思冥想 kǔ sī míng xiǎng

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Characters in this entry

冥: míng · dark, gloomy, night; deep
思: sī · think, consider, ponder; final particle
苦: kǔ · bitter; hardship, suffering
索: suǒ · large rope, cable; rules, laws; to demand, to exact; to search, inquire; isolated

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

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Mandarin tones

2–1–3–3 · ming2 si1 ku3 suo3

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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.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

ming5 si1 fu2 sok3

Cantonese word readings for 冥思苦索. 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 think long and hard; to rack one's brains; to cudgel one's brains

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

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