杞人之憂

简 杞人之忧 · 繁 杞人之憂
Mandarin · pinyin Qǐ rén zhī yōu

Meanings

  1. (lit.) the fear held by a man of 杞 Qǐ that the sky would fall (idiom)
  2. (fig.) groundless fears
Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

杞
qǐ · willow; medlar tree; a small feudal state (Qi)
人
rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
之
zhī · marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; go to
憂
Look up this written character
忧
yōu · sad, grieved; grief, melancholy
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

3–2–1–1 · Qi3 ren2 zhi1 you1

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

5character links2source references
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.

杞人之憂 · find source passages ↗ · 杞人之忧 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Rime

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

gei2 jan4 zi1 jau1

Cantonese word readings for 杞人之憂. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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

杞人之憂 · Qi3 ren2 zhi1 you1
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 56,204
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record杞人之憂 杞人之忧 [Qi3 ren2 zhi1 you1] /(lit.) the fear held by a man of 杞[Qi3] that the sky would fall (idiom)/(fig.) groundless fears/