DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

損人不利己

简损人不利己 · 繁損人不利己

Mandarin · pinyin sǔn rén bù lì jǐ

to harm others without benefiting oneself (idiom)

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

損: Look up this written character
人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
利: lì · gains, advantage, profit, merit
己: jǐ · self, oneself; personal, private; 6th heavenly stem
损: sǔn · diminish; impair; injure

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

3–2–4–4–3 · sun3 ren2 bu4 li4 ji3

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

5character links

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

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.

損人不利己 · find source passages ↗ · 损人不利己 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

syun2 jan4 bat1 lei6 gei2

Cantonese word readings for 損人不利己. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

(idiomatic) to harm others without gaining anything in the process; to cut off one's nose to spite one's face

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

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack