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孤陋寡聞

简孤陋寡闻 · 繁孤陋寡聞

Mandarin · pinyin gū lòu guǎ wén

ignorant and inexperienced
ill-informed and narrow-minded

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Characters in this entry

孤: gū · orphan, fatherless; solitary
陋: lòu · narrow; crude, coarse; ugly
寡: guǎ · widowed; alone, friendless
聞: Look up this written character
闻: wén · hear; smell; make known; news

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

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Mandarin tones

1–4–3–2 · gu1 lou4 gua3 wen2

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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.

孤陋寡聞 · find source passages ↗ · 孤陋寡闻 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

gu1 lau6 gwaa2 man4

Cantonese word readings for 孤陋寡聞. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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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) ignorant and ill-informed

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

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