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家醜不可外揚

简家丑不可外扬 · 繁家醜不可外揚

Mandarin · pinyin jiā chǒu bù kě wài yáng

lit. family shames must not be spread abroad (idiom)
fig. don't wash your dirty linen in public

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Characters in this entry

家: jiā · house, home, residence; family
醜: Look up this written character
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
可: kě · may, can, -able; possibly
外: wài · out, outside, external; foreign
揚: Look up this written character
丑: chǒu · clown, comedian; second earthly branch
扬: yáng · scatter, spread; praise

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

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Mandarin tones

1–3–4–3–4–2 · jia1 chou3 bu4 ke3 wai4 yang2

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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.

家醜不可外揚 · find source passages ↗ · 家丑不可外扬 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

gaa1 cau2 bat1 ho2 ngoi6 joeng4

Cantonese word readings for 家醜不可外揚. 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.

proverb

what happens in the family stays in the family; don't wash your dirty linen in public

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

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