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無風不起浪

简无风不起浪 · 繁無風不起浪

Mandarin · pinyin wú fēng bù qǐ làng

lit. without wind there cannot be waves (idiom); there must be a reason
no smoke without fire

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Characters in this entry

無: Look up this written character
風: fēng · wind; air; manners, atmosphere; Kangxi radical 182
不: bù · no, not; un-; negative prefix
起: qǐ · rise, stand up; go up; begin
浪: làng · wave; wasteful, reckless
无: wú · negative, no, not; Kangxi radical 71
风: fēng · wind; air; manners, atmosphere

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

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Mandarin tones

2–1–4–3–4 · wu2 feng1 bu4 qi3 lang4

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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.

無風不起浪 · find source passages ↗ · 无风不起浪 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

mou4 fung1 bat1 hei2 long6

Cantonese word readings for 無風不起浪. 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.

proverb

(figurative) No smoke without fire.

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

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