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啼笑皆非

Mandarin · pinyin tí xiào jiē fēi

lit. not to know whether to laugh or cry (idiom)
between laughter and tears

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Characters in this entry

啼: tí · weep, whimper; howl, twitter
笑: xiào · smile, laugh, giggle; snicker
皆: jiē · all, every, everybody
非: fēi · not, negative, non-; oppose; Kangxi radical 175

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

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Mandarin tones

2–4–1–1 · ti2 xiao4 jie1 fei1

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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

tai4 siu3 gaai1 fei1

Cantonese word readings for 啼笑皆非. 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 so ridiculous that it is both saddening and provokes laughter at the same time

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

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