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無心插柳柳成蔭

简无心插柳柳成荫 · 繁無心插柳柳成蔭

Cantonese · source Jyutpingmou4 sam1 caap3 lau5 lau5 sing4 jam3

to reap unexpected rewards from an one's unintentional actions

About these definitions

Source definition segments, in their original order. Characters a definition cites are shown without their Mandarin pinyin; classifier lists that CC-Canto copied from CC-CEDICT are marked Mandarin. The community dictionary is not independently verified by zimai.

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Reading & tones

mou44 · low fallingsam11 · high levelcaap33 · mid levelchecked · -plau55 · low risinglau55 · low risingsing44 · low fallingjam33 · mid level

Schematic citation-tone diagrams from the source numbers. These are not recordings or predictions of connected speech.

Tone difference from Unihan

蔭 is read jam3 here; Unihan’s citation reading is jam1. Same syllable, different tone across these source readings. CC-Canto also lists 蔭 jam3 as its own entry.

Computed by zimai: each syllable of the CC-Canto word reading is compared with Unihan 17.0.0 kCantonese for its character. The comparison does not say why a reading differs (a changed tone, 變音, a reading tied to one meaning, or a source variant).

Same syllable, six tones

moumou1—mou2—mou3—无mou4not to have 武mou5martial 务mou6affair

sam心sam1heart 审sam2to examine 沁sam3to seep 忱sam4sinceritysam5—甚sam6what

caapcaap1—caap2—插caap3to insertcaap4—caap5—caap6—

lau搂lau1to wear over one's shoulder or head or facelau2—lau3—流lau4to flow 柳lau5willow 漏lau6to leak

sing星sing1star 醒sing2to wake up 圣sing3holy 城sing4city wallssing5—盛sing6flourishing

jam音jam1sound 饮jam2to drink 窨jam3a cellar 淫jam4excess 荏jam5Perilla ocimoides 任jam6to assign

Characters whose customary Unihan reading (kCantonese) is this syllable in each tone, chosen as in the tone atlas (2013 standard level, then the number of CC-CEDICT words they form), with CC-Canto 2017's meaning for that reading; a dash means no catalogue character has that reading. Checked syllables (-p, -t, -k) normally carry tones 1, 3 and 6. Character readings, not word readings; no frequency implied.

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Written characters

無心插柳成蔭无荫

Both source spellings are represented. Written membership is not an etymological or semantic claim.

Cantonese characters and the Mandarin bridge ↗

Mandarin comparison · separate source entries

CC-Canto includes this pinyin reference: wu2 xin1 cha1 liu3 liu3 cheng2 yin4. It does not establish a Mandarin word with the same meaning.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

mou4 sam1 caap3 lau5 lau5 sing4 jam3

Cantonese word readings for 無心插柳柳成蔭. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

proverb

to do something which unintentionally returns positive results

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

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