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小道消息

Mandarin · pinyin xiǎo dào xiāo xi

hearsay
gossip

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Characters in this entry

小: xiǎo · small, tiny, insignificant
道: dào · path, road, street; method, way
消: xiāo · vanish, die out; melt away
息: xī · rest, put stop to, end, cease

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

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Mandarin tones

3–4–1–5 · xiao3 dao4 xiao1 xi5

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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.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

siu2 dou6 siu1 sik1

Cantonese word readings for 小道消息. 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) grapevine news; hearsay

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

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