私底下

Mandarin · pinyin sī dǐ xia

Meanings

  1. privately
  2. secretly
  3. confidentially
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Characters in this entry

私
sī · private, personal; secret
底
dǐ · bottom, underneath, underside
下
xià · under, underneath, below; down; inferior; bring down
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

1–3–5 · si1 di3 xia5

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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.

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Rime Cantonese 粵拼

si1 dai2 haa6

Cantonese word readings for 私底下. 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.

adv

  1. privately; secretly; behind one's back

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

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