功莫大焉

Mandarin · pinyin gōng mò dà yān

Meanings

  1. no greater contribution has been made than this (idiom)
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Characters in this entry

功
gōng · achievement, merit, good result
莫
mò · do not, is not, can not; negative
大
dà · big, great, vast, large, high
焉
yān · thereupon, then; how? why? where?
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

1–4–4–1 · gong1 mo4 da4 yan1

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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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