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燃眉之急

Mandarin · pinyin rán méi zhī jí

lit. the fire burns one's eyebrows (idiom); fig. desperate situation
extreme emergency

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Characters in this entry

燃: rán · burn; light fire, ignite
眉: méi · eyebrows; upper margin of book
之: zhī · marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase; it, him her, them; go to
急: jí · quick, quickly; urgent, pressing

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

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Mandarin tones

2–2–1–2 · ran2 mei2 zhi1 ji2

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

jin4 mei4 zi1 gap1

Cantonese word readings for 燃眉之急. 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) extreme urgency

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

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