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掩人耳目

Mandarin · pinyin yǎn rén ěr mù

to fool people (idiom)
to pull the wool over people's eyes

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Characters in this entry

掩: yǎn · to cover (with the hand); shut, conceal; ambush
人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
耳: ěr · ear; merely, only; handle; Kangxi radical 128
目: mù · eye; look, see; division, topic; Kangxi radical 109

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

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Mandarin tones

3–2–3–4 · yan3 ren2 er3 mu4

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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.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

jim2 jan4 ji5 muk6

Cantonese word readings for 掩人耳目. 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 deceive and hide the truth from others

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

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