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差強人意

简差强人意 · 繁差強人意

Mandarin · pinyin chā qiáng rén yì

(idiom) just passable
barely satisfactory

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Characters in this entry

差: chà · chā · to differ; different, wrong; nearly, almost; an officer
強: qiáng · strong, powerful, energetic
人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
意: yì · thought, idea, opinion; think
强: qiáng · strong, powerful, energetic

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

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Mandarin tones

1–2–2–4 · cha1 qiang2 ren2 yi4

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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.

差強人意 · find source passages ↗ · 差强人意 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 2 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

caa1 koeng5 jan4 ji3

Cantonese word readings for 差強人意. 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

(approvingly) just passable; fair; adequate
(neologism, disapprovingly) below standard and not quite satisfactory; barely acceptable; not that great; just ok

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

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