DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

曲高和寡

Mandarin · pinyin qǔ gāo hè guǎ

difficult songs find few singers (idiom)
highbrow

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

曲: qū · crooked, bent; wrong, false
高: gāo · high, tall; lofty, elevated; Kangxi radical 189
和: hé · harmony, peace; peaceful, calm
寡: guǎ · widowed; alone, friendless

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

3–1–4–3 · qu3 gao1 he4 gua3

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

4character 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.

曲高和寡 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

kuk1 gou1 wo6 gwaa2

Cantonese word readings for 曲高和寡. 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 be highbrow and unpopular, as it cannot be easily understood by the common people

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

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