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手足無措

简手足无措 · 繁手足無措

Mandarin · pinyin shǒu zú wú cuò

at a loss to know what to do (idiom); bewildered

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Characters in this entry

手: shǒu · hand
足: zú · foot; attain, satisfy, enough; Kangxi radical 156
無: Look up this written character
措: cuò · place; collect, arrange; employ
无: wú · negative, no, not; Kangxi radical 71

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

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Mandarin tones

3–2–2–4 · shou3 zu2 wu2 cuo4

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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.

手足無措 · find source passages ↗ · 手足无措 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

sau2 zuk1 mou4 cou3

Cantonese word readings for 手足無措. 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 be at a loss for what to do

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

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