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好高騖遠

简好高骛远 · 繁好高騖遠

Mandarin · pinyin hào gāo wù yuǎn

to bite off more than one can chew (idiom)
to aim too high

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Characters in this entry

好: hǎo · good, excellent, fine; well
高: gāo · high, tall; lofty, elevated; Kangxi radical 189
騖: Look up this written character
遠: yuǎn · distant, remote, far; profound
骛: wù · gallop; rush about; pursue, run
远: yuǎn · distant, remote, far; profound

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

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Mandarin tones

4–1–4–3 · hao4 gao1 wu4 yuan3

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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.

好高騖遠 · find source passages ↗ · 好高骛远 · find source passages ↗

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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 bite off more than one can chew

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

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