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妖言惑眾

简妖言惑众 · 繁妖言惑眾

Mandarin · pinyin yāo yán huò zhòng

to mislead the public with rumors (idiom)
to delude the people with lies

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Characters in this entry

妖: yāo · strange, weird, supernatural
言: yán · words, speech; speak, say; Kangxi radical 149
惑: huò · confuse, mislead, baffle; doubt
眾: Look up this written character
众: zhòng · multitude, crowd; masses, public

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

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Mandarin tones

1–2–4–4 · yao1 yan2 huo4 zhong4

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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.

妖言惑眾 · find source passages ↗ · 妖言惑众 · 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 delude the masses with strange and harmful teachings; to deceive people with lies and fallacies

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

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