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房間裡的大象

简房间里的大象 · 繁房間裡的大象

Mandarin · pinyin fáng jiān lǐ de dà xiàng

the elephant in the room

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Characters in this entry

房: fáng · house, building; room; 4th lunar mansion, determinative star π Scorpii
間: Look up this written character
裡: Look up this written character
的: de · possessive, adjectival suffix
大: dà · big, great, vast, large, high
象: xiàng · elephant; ivory; figure, image
间: jiān · midpoint, space; place, locality
里: lǐ · unit of distance; village; lane; Kangxi radical 166

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

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Mandarin tones

2–1–3–5–4–4 · fang2 jian1 li3 de5 da4 xiang4

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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.

房間裡的大象 · find source passages ↗ · 房间里的大象 · find source passages ↗

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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) elephant in the room

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

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