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杳無人煙

简杳无人烟 · 繁杳無人煙

Mandarin · pinyin yǎo wú rén yān

see 杳無人跡 yǎo wú rén jì

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Characters in this entry

杳: yǎo · obscure, dark, mysterious, deep
無: Look up this written character
人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
煙: Look up this written character
无: wú · negative, no, not; Kangxi radical 71
烟: yān · smoke, soot; opium; tobacco, cigarettes

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

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Mandarin tones

3–2–2–1 · yao3 wu2 ren2 yan1

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Connected dictionary

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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.

杳無人煙 · find source passages ↗ · 杳无人烟 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense

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 desolate; to be uninhabited

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

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