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眾盲摸象

简众盲摸象 · 繁眾盲摸象

Mandarin · pinyin zhòng máng mō xiàng

multitude of blind people touch an elephant (idiom, from Nirvana sutra 大般涅槃經 dà bān Niè pán jīng); fig. unable to see the big picture
to mistake the part for the whole
unable to see the wood for the trees

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Characters in this entry

眾: Look up this written character
盲: máng · blind; unperceptive, shortsighted
摸: mō · gently touch with hand; caress
象: xiàng · elephant; ivory; figure, image
众: zhòng · multitude, crowd; masses, public

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

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Mandarin tones

4–2–1–4 · zhong4 mang2 mo1 xiang4

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

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眾盲摸象 · find source passages ↗ · 众盲摸象 · find source passages ↗

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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) synonym of 盲人摸象 (mángrénmōxiàng)

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

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