DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

孤軍奮戰

简孤军奋战 · 繁孤軍奮戰

Mandarin · pinyin gū jūn fèn zhàn

lit. lone army putting up a brave fight (idiom)
fig. (of a person or group of people) struggling hard without support

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

孤: gū · orphan, fatherless; solitary
軍: Look up this written character
奮: Look up this written character
戰: Look up this written character
军: jūn · army, military; soldiers, troops
奋: fèn · strive, exert effort; arouse
战: zhàn · war, fighting, battle

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

1–1–4–4 · gu1 jun1 fen4 zhan4

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

4character links

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

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.

孤軍奮戰 · find source passages ↗ · 孤军奋战 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Rime · Wiktionary

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

gu1 gwan1 fan5 zin3

Cantonese word readings for 孤軍奮戰. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

phrase

(idiomatic) lone army putting up a brave fight; fighting alone without help; struggling hard without support

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

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack