無頭蒼蠅

简 无头苍蝇 · 繁 無頭蒼蠅
Mandarin · pinyin wú tóu cāng ying

Meanings

  1. headless fly (a metaphor for sb who is rushing around frantically)
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Characters in this entry

無
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頭
tóu · head; top; chief, first; boss
蒼
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蠅
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无
wú · negative, no, not; Kangxi radical 71
头
tóu · head; top; chief, first; boss
苍
cāng · blue; green
蝇
yíng · flies
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

2–2–1–5 · wu2 tou2 cang1 ying5

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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.

無頭蒼蠅 · find source passages ↗ · 无头苍蝇 · find source passages ↗

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無頭蒼蠅 · wu2 tou2 cang1 ying5
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 70,227
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record無頭蒼蠅 无头苍蝇 [wu2 tou2 cang1 ying5] /headless fly (a metaphor for sb who is rushing around frantically)/