多災多難

简 多灾多难 · 繁 多災多難
Mandarin · pinyin duō zāi duō nàn

Meanings

  1. to be plagued with misfortunes
  2. precarious
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Characters in this entry

多
duō · much, many; more than, over
災
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難
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灾
zāi · calamity, disaster, catastrophe
难
nán · difficult, arduous, hard; unable
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

1–1–1–4 · duo1 zai1 duo1 nan4

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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.

多災多難 · find source passages ↗ · 多灾多难 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

  1. (idiomatic) with many disasters

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

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