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洪水猛獸

简洪水猛兽 · 繁洪水猛獸

Mandarin · pinyin hóng shuǐ měng shòu

lit. severe floods and fierce beasts (idiom)
fig. great scourges
extremely dangerous or threatening things

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Characters in this entry

洪: hóng · vast, immense; flood, deluge
水: shuǐ · water, liquid, lotion, juice
猛: měng · violent, savage, cruel; bold
獸: Look up this written character
兽: shòu · beast, animal; bestial

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

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Mandarin tones

2–3–3–4 · hong2 shui3 meng3 shou4

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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.

洪水猛獸 · find source passages ↗ · 洪水猛兽 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

hung4 seoi2 maang5 sau3

Cantonese word readings for 洪水猛獸. 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) enormous disasters; something that causes enormous damage

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

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