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動腦筋

简动脑筋 · 繁動腦筋

Mandarin · pinyin dòng nǎo jīn

to use one's brains
to think

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Characters in this entry

動: dòng · move, happen; movement, action
腦: Look up this written character
筋: jīn · muscles; tendons
动: dòng · move, happen; movement, action
脑: nǎo · brain

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

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Mandarin tones

4–3–1 · dong4 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.

動腦筋 · find source passages ↗ · 动脑筋 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

dung6 nou5 gan1

Cantonese word readings for 動腦筋. 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.

verb

(verb-object) to exercise one’s brains

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

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