DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

發人深思

简发人深思 · 繁發人深思

Mandarin · pinyin fā rén shēn sī

(idiom) thought-provoking
to give one food for thought

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

發: fā · issue, dispatch, send out, emit
人: rén · man; people; mankind; someone else
深: shēn · deep; depth; far; very, extreme
思: sī · think, consider, ponder; final particle
发: fā · issue, dispatch, send out; hair

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

1–2–1–1 · fa1 ren2 shen1 si1

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

5character 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.

發人深思 · find source passages ↗ · 发人深思 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗