形影相弔

简 形影相吊 · 繁 形影相弔
Mandarin · pinyin xíng yǐng xiāng diào

Meanings

  1. with only body and shadow to comfort each other (idiom)
  2. extremely sad and lonely
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Characters in this entry

形
xíng · form, shape, appearance
影
yǐng · shadow; image, reflection; photograph
相
xiāng · mutual, reciprocal, each other
弔
Look up this written character
吊
diào · condole, mourn, pity; hang
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

2–3–1–4 · xing2 ying3 xiang1 diao4

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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.

形影相弔 · find source passages ↗ · 形影相吊 · find source passages ↗

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

jing4 jing2 soeng1 diu3

Cantonese word readings for 形影相弔. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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

形影相弔 · xing2 ying3 xiang1 diao4
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 39,683
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record形影相弔 形影相吊 [xing2 ying3 xiang1 diao4] /with only body and shadow to comfort each other (idiom)/extremely sad and lonely/