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有口無心

简有口无心 · 繁有口無心

Mandarin · pinyin yǒu kǒu wú xīn

to speak harshly but without any bad intent (idiom)

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Characters in this entry

有: yǒu · have, own, possess; exist
口: kǒu · mouth; open end; entrance, gate
無: Look up this written character
心: xīn · heart; mind, intelligence; soul; 5th lunar mansion, determinative star α Scorpii (Antares)
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

3–3–2–1 · you3 kou3 wu2 xin1

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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.

有口無心 · find source passages ↗ · 有口无心 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

jau5 hau2 mou4 sam1

Cantonese word readings for 有口無心. 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 sharp tongued but not malicious; to be highly critical but not really mean it

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

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