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灰飛煙滅

简灰飞烟灭 · 繁灰飛煙滅

Mandarin · pinyin huī fēi yān miè

lit. scattered ashes and dispersed smoke (idiom)
fig. to be annihilated
to vanish in a puff of smoke

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Characters in this entry

灰: huī · ashes; dust; lime, mortar
飛: Look up this written character
煙: Look up this written character
滅: Look up this written character
飞: fēi · fly; go quickly; dart; high
烟: yān · smoke, soot; opium; tobacco, cigarettes
灭: miè · extinguish; wipe out, exterminate

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

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Mandarin tones

1–1–1–4 · hui1 fei1 yan1 mie4

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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.

灰飛煙滅 · find source passages ↗ · 灰飞烟灭 · find source passages ↗

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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 vanish completely

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

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