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妙不可言

Mandarin · pinyin miào bù kě yán

too wonderful for words

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Characters in this entry

妙: miào · mysterious, subtle; exquisite
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
可: kě · may, can, -able; possibly
言: yán · words, speech; speak, say; Kangxi radical 149

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

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Mandarin tones

4–4–3–2 · miao4 bu4 ke3 yan2

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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 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

miu6 bat1 ho2 jin4

Cantonese word readings for 妙不可言. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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