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忍氣吞聲

简忍气吞声 · 繁忍氣吞聲

Mandarin · pinyin rěn qì tūn shēng

to submit to humiliation (idiom); to suffer in silence
to swallow one's anger
to grin and bear it

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Characters in this entry

忍: rěn · endure, bear, suffer; forbear
氣: qì · air, gas, steam, vapor; spirit
吞: tūn · swallow; absorb, annex, engulf
聲: shēng · sound, voice, noise; tone; music
气: qì · steam, vapor; Kangxi radical 84
声: shēng · sound, voice, noise; tone; music

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

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Mandarin tones

3–4–1–1 · ren3 qi4 tun1 sheng1

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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.

忍氣吞聲 · find source passages ↗ · 忍气吞声 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

jan2 hei3 tan1 sing1

Cantonese word readings for 忍氣吞聲. 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) to silently eat humble pie; to suppress anger and quietly bear humiliation

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

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