DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

燒腦

简烧脑 · 繁燒腦

Mandarin · pinyin shāo nǎo

(neologism, attested by 2016) (coll.) (of a situation, problem or piece of content) intensely demanding on the brain; brain-bending

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

燒: shāo · burn; bake; heat; roast
腦: Look up this written character
烧: shāo · burn; bake; heat; roast
脑: nǎo · brain

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

1–3 · shao1 nao3

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

3character links

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

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.

燒腦 · find source passages ↗ · 烧脑 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

siu1 nou5

Cantonese word readings for 燒腦. 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.

adj

(neologism) “brain-burning”; that demands and consumes very much thinking and reasoning

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

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